We’ve fought and died in this country’s wars, without question. We’ve come home from wars and been spat upon and alienated from the society who sent us there.
We’ve built the infrastructure of the country … the roads, the bridges, the dams…only to see them deteriorate because corrupt politicians have used the maintenance money for social programs to buy votes.
We’ve allowed our politicians to open our borders to get cheap labor for “jobs Americans won’t do” and granted H1b Visas to foreign skilled workers to come here to replace our skilled workers.
We shake our heads when our courts manipulate the laws beyond recognition and weep when a court decision can be predicted by determining which political party the jurists belong to.
We’ve watched as the values and beliefs that elevated this country are mocked in the media and Hollywood.
We’ve accepted schools that don’t teach and students that don’t learn because of the iron grip of the teachers’ unions and corrupt politicians that are reelected using their involuntary dues.
We’ve watched the foundations of our religious beliefs and institutions shaken by the same deception, duplicity and misdirection as our politics.
We’ve tried to be fair to women and have created one of the most gender neutral, if not female biased, countries in the world but are constantly accused of misogyny.
We’ve held our tongues while politicians shipped our industries and jobs overseas in the name of “free trade” in order to line the pockets of corporations who buy the politicians’ votes.
We’ve accepted deceptive politicians closing down jobs, industries and regions of our country for their favorite pseudo-scientific cause.
We’ve turned away while politicians started in office with an empty bank account and ended up multi-millionaires.
We’ve watched while others of a different gender, race or ethnicity form support groups to promote their identity and access to jobs and education at the exclusion of middle class, white males.
We’ve allowed ourselves to be shouted down by any effort to promote our race or gender as racist, homophobic or misogynistic.
We’ve read about politicians lining their pockets with insider information and play-for-pay schemes but only rarely do they receive anything more than a slap on the hand.
We’ve stopped reading our newspapers and watching nightly news because we know that story selection and bias permeates the content.
We now must face a national election where, in a country with 325 million people, we end up with a choice between a narcissistic buffoon and a congenital liar, bought and paid for by Wall Street who is willing to put the country at risk to line her own pockets.
I, like so many of my friends, are mad as hell and won’t take it any more, but at this stage don’t know what to do about it.
