Their Hate is No Good

All countries eventaully decline. It is the natural order of things. Leadership is not easy. Nations, by their nature, like people, are ever in competition. Some find their greatness in being second, third or 33rd. The nations that make up the top 20 in the world, are in their respective positions pretty much because that is where they want to be.

Some are in flux, certainly. Russia is always either rising or declining, depending on the price of oil and some other things. China is rising. Some in Eastern Europe are rising but there is not so much room for these smaller, less powerful nations so they will jostle and fight for their places somewhere between 40 and 20 and be happy.

The United States of America is arguably still number one. Then again, how do we define this? Is it GDP, GNP, level of education, level of health care, percentage of GDP spent on health care, level of deficits, miles of road, number of infant deaths per thousand, number of deaths by hand guns each year, etc.?

Or, is it the amazingly unmeasurable notion of "freedom" that makes us number one? Is it the amazing system of balances that our government still flaunts so many years after its inception? Truly, this is one of the greatest contributions to modern governing. Our ability to always find a way to recalibrate the scales so that no one branch ever becomes too powerful is simply mystifying to the world. It prevents something like Nazi Germany from ever happening in America.

It is a Constitution

Foreigners just don't believe that this system exists; they can't because it suggests that there is a certain selflessness amongst the leaders of these three branches. It suggests that the leaders of the three branches are devoted to something even grander than their own tenuous grips on power: they are all beholden to a Constitution.

The Bush II people, and Cheney still, made the most aggressive assault on that system and really, we should thank them. What good is a system that is never tested every now and again? The system worked wonderfully and even despite the manipulation of fear by W to get us to forget about our rights and the balance that ought be, all found its original equilibrium. And, we are once again, America, for better or worse.

As America teeters in its role as the world leader, however, we have found a new voice and commitment to excellence. President Obama is our president and he is leading all Americans, whether you voted for him or not, to a place that will certainly be better for all. He is determined to make us a good as we can be and by all of us becoming better, America becomes greater. This is a worthy goal and one that should be supported.

Yet, the hate has once again commenced. An abortion doctor is shot to death in church by a man who undoubtedly voted republican in the last election and who most certainly is a fan of Rush Limbaugh. A WWII vet slaughtered a black guard at the Holocaust museum solely for the reason that he was black. This man too, 88 years old, is no doubt a conservative and probably hates Obama.

The Department for Homeland security has said that the "chatter" on the airwaves is similar to what it was like when Timothy McVeigh was getting ready to blow up that daycare center in Oklahoma. They say that the chatter is of American origin and is against blacks, Jews, gays, the government, etc. Why do we permit this nonsense? Why is our nation so afraid of change?

Why do the conservatives have this monopoly on the US flag and patriotism and soaring eagles and apple pie? Yet, at the end of the day, it is these same conservatives who hate so many of their fellow Americans. Why isn't someone like Limbaugh called what he is by the national press, by the President, by the FBI, "a revolution-espousing fascist" who will only rest when this nation has been brought to its knees? (Oh, and he is a drug addict, as well.)

The conservatives and their more radical kin, the "people haters" (the brownshirts), manipulate our system in ways similar to how the Muslim terrorists use it. And, like those terrorists, they use this system not to make our nation greater, but to destroy it.

Just Once

Just once, I wish someone would have the balls to go to one of their NRA rallies, one of their conventions where they praise the Lord and quote Limbaugh, and I wish this person would...but then again, that would make us no better than they are. I refuse to live with the hate that unites them.

As Obama makes us better, heals us, they will tear us down still and yes, we will decline into the cauldron of failed powers, consumed by our own idiocy and backwardness. Jesus would not tolerate them for who they are, so then why do we? Oh, I remember why, because they are our fellow citizens and there is that document, parched and probably enclosed in glass.

This document legally permits them to "hate", to "blather endlessly, mindlessly" yet always in the hope that just once, a word, an idea, a proclomation might prove worthy of national notice. That document, ratified in 1789, is our playbook for governing right. It is the US Constitution and it belongs to all of us, so be it.