Why do you hate America?

First off, I don’t hate America, but I hate what conservatives think it is, or what it should be. This country was founded by liberal deists, not conservative christians. At the time of its founding, the United States was one of the most liberal countries on the planet. A bill of rights? Freedom of religion? Of press? Of speech? No way! Wow. They were rebelling against a conservative state. A state with a monarchy, an established church, a state where the basic human right of freedom of expression was not guaranteed. No, there was a reason why the conservatives in the revolution were loyalists to the crown. After the revolution they sought to make the country more like Great Britain. Luckily after the war of 1812 they became politically irrelevant….for a time.

The conservatives really think they own this country. That god gave it to them and that these liberal scumbags are trying to usurp it out from under them. They’d love an America where gun owning was mandatory, along with membership to a protestant church. An America where anybody who was not white or male could not vote. Hell, what they really want America to resemble is the South during the Civil War. It’s not surprising since the biggest base of the conservative party is poorly educated, angry white southern men. (The modern republican party that is, not Lincoln’s republicans. The modern GOP was formed when LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, all the southern democrats, appalled that everyone should be allowed to vote, left to form a new republican base in the south)

I hate this image of America. Presently the republicans don’t give a shit about the environment, or the fact that we’re rapidly killing the planet, and ourselves. Their knee jerk reaction to any foreign problem is to bomb the hell out of it. Republicans are great for fighting wars. It’s a useful way to channel all that rage they have, but they absolutely suck when it comes to making peace.

For example, Obama’s policy on the Middle East. Obama wants to try engaging leaders there by talking, and admitting that America has made mistakes. He’s showing humility. The conservatives are furious over this. They are so prideful they can’t stand the idea that they’re great America, the greatest nation on earth, could make a mistake. The people in the Middle East however are stunned that for the first time in a long long time, the US is showing them respect instead of arrogance. What happens a few weeks later? A pro-American party wins election in Lebanon. The conservatives don’t know how to live with people, only how to kill them.

My image of the modern day conservative is of some white cowbow in a hummer, tearing up a wildlife refuge, shooting birds from his truck, while downing a beer that sits under a crucifix hanging from the rear view mirror. If this is America then I hate it.

The America I love is humble, respects human rights and human dignity. In my ideal America looks more like a cross between modern day France and Sweden. Secular with a government that takes care of those less fortunate. A place where corrupt politicians are not tolerated. Where the environment is respected and ignorance discouraged. I love how the French government is scared of its people. If the French people don’t like something, they riot till it’s fixed. I wished the American people scared the US government like that, not the other way around.