Sit Amor Patriae Nostra Lex

[midnightranter]

"I'm sorry, Mr President. I cannot in good conscience sign such a document. I will never stop hoping for out eventual reconciliation with England. But because in my own way, I regard America no less than does Mr Adams, I will join the army and fight in her defense, even though I believe that fight to be hopeless. Good bye, gentlemen." In the movie

Comments

[angelari]

I don't agree with that kind of behavior at all. At all. I think it's totally unacceptable.

But. Right-wing conservatives have gone out of their way over the past eight years to silence their opponents, and now they're all YOU MUST BE BIPARTISAN and DON'T FORGET TO WORK WITH US! And yes, unity is a good thing, and I'm very certain that President-Elect Obama will continue to be a uniter, to scold the people in the crowd who boo the opposition, because they're missing the damn point.

So, while I am so damned tired of being called every name in the book by the Folks in Power (or the Folks Who Want It); while I'm tired of being called un-American, the next best thing to a terrorist, etc; while I've spent the past eight years being told to shut up, and I probably have every right in the world to wave my flag and go WE WON AND YOU LOST, YOU LUNATICS, and rub your face in the fact that the flaming right-wing Loonpublicans are losing power. But I won't. So. I ask you, in the spirit of goddamned bipartisanship, could you please just... BE A DAMNED AMERICAN? Senator McCain doesn't want you to join a group called "Nobama." He wants you to put down your shiny red flag and drop your stuffed elephant and BE AN AMERICAN. You voted your ticket, you expressed your opinion, the votes were counted and your team lost. And now it's not supposed to be about teams any more, because the Olympics are over and now it's time to actually get to work. So please. Leave the team behind.

BE AN AMERICAN.

Thank you.

[doitalone]

He wants you to put down your shiny red flag and drop your stuffed elephant and BE AN AMERICAN.

See, this is what I really don't get. So now that Obama won I have to start believing in him? I have to get behind him and his leadership skills? I have to be excited about his plans, over 75% of which I don't believe in?

My god, if only everyone had done that for Bush...

Here's the deal, I'm proud that I voted for McCain, I don't like Obama, or his plans, and I have a right to say that. In fact, I'd almost say it's my duty to say that because our entire system is based on the idea of this balence of power. No one branch, or person, should have too much. The idea that all of a sudden I have to start liking him and get behind him really irks me.

Yes, it was probably immature of me to join a group called "nobama" (which was really just a funny take off on "gobama" which was everyone status message when he won) but it doesn't make me any less of an American just because I don't happen to agree with you, or him.

[angelari]

Nobody's asking you to like him. I didn't once say that I wanted you to like him. I asked you to stop being about "McCain vs. Obama." I don't like President Bush; I don't approve of his policies or his politics, but when he won I didn't join any groups proclaiming my undying loyalty to Kerry or design any "I voted for the other guy" bumper stickers. I accepted him as my President, much as it pained me, and I suffered through the last eight years with my head down, waiting for it to be over. At least you won't have to cringe every time Obama opens his mouth, waiting for him to say something ignorant or illiterate or wrong, like I did with Bush. And for that, for quietly (and sometimes vociferously) disagreeing with the President and his politics, I got called un-American, anti-American, a terrorist, and so on. I got told to shut up. I had to hold my breath and bide my time as the liberties I cherished were taken away one by one, my way of life was threatened, and my economy was destroyed. And then your candidate and his peculiar choice for Vice President came along and once again said I was less of an American than some blue-collar worker in a small town just because I was educated and lived in a city.

EIGHT YEARS we've had to deal with being told that we were somehow inferior because we disagreed with the Constitutional violations being imposed upon us for some imaginary safety. And now, after that, all I am asking is that you just... stop hyping a race that is over and try joining in. Or at least stop holding out.

[zeriel]

As I've said to other conservatives, if Obama mispronounces a simple word, or gives an impromptu back massage to someone of ambassadorial rank, or commits any other faux pax, dammit, I encourage you to make fun of him just as much as I made fun of Bush when he did it. Because I'll be doing it too, just like I did for Clinton (possibly the political commentary I laughed at the most was a flash game where you played a pantsless Clinton wandering the White House trying to catch and have sex with women, only funny because the most common endgame message was "YOU LOSE, YOU HAD SEX WITH YOUR WIFE")

[zeriel]

Frankly I'm with you and I wish both sides would drop the insulting crap and get along with it. On a message board I frequent, several of the first threads following the election results were from conservative McCain supporters--starting with an Evangelical Christian who said "Yes you could. God bless and grant wisdom to Barack Obama and Joe Biden." Followed by one of the angriest, least shit-taking conservatives I know, who said "I won't sink to the level of the loonies I despise, but I will stand with the patriots on the other side. While I didn't vote for him, Obama is my president, and his supporters are my countrymen--Americans all." I'm trying to ride that high of respect for an opposition that we all know in our hearts cares as much as we do, even if their conclusions are wrong from our point of view--as heated as my arguments can get sometimes (because hey, that's where I come from, metaphorically--remind me or Pat to tell you the story of my dad and the cookie vendor) we are all willing to argue because we love this country and want the best for it.