We as Americans are incredibly proud of extolling these words to the rest of the world “one nation (under God) indivisible with liberty and justice for all,” but in actuality, especially in the era of Obama, those words ring more hollow every day we live in a time with calls for freedom and liberty has become the battle cries of those that seek to discriminate no press. It is a time that is seen reverence for the office of the presidency diminished, not because of party affiliation, not because of incompetence or corruption, but primarily because of the color of our president’s skin.
Today in the United States, the definition of an existential threat has become black skin, a hoodie, and a bag of Skittles. In the wake of our country’s worst economic challenges since the depression, people that are suffering because of this are demonized and abandoned while our judiciary and politicians support the personification of corporations and their robber baron owners. To them, it’s an abomination to extend unemployment benefits while corporate subsidies to the wealthiest corporations in the world are sacrosanct.
While many conservatives and libertarians espouse the free hand of capitalism and the rugged individualism of Americans, they craft and support legislation that grossly advantages the rich and perversely wants to control women’s lives and reproductive decisions.
Beware of those who wax nostalgic about how great the past was or protest that they want to take their country back. The world is changing too fast for them, and they can’t keep up. The American people’s selection of an African-American president (twice) has forced them to expose their paranoia about these societal and demographic changes. Their responses to these changes have been desperate and depraved. Black and brown people don’t want to vote for us, then dismantle the voter’s rights act and create 21st-century poll taxes by enacting voter ID laws. If the United States is becoming a majority–minority country, then vehemently oppose immigration reform. If the horrific slaughter of children and teachers doesn’t awaken the American people to the perils of cloaking oneself in the absolutism of the Second Amendment, then we are doomed.
How can we stand by and watch our democracy (imperfect as it is), our public, our people subjugated to being spectators and victims to the whims and desires of a political and economic class that treats the majority of Americans with contempt and disdain?
It is time for revolt, a peaceful uprising. A revolution through the ballot boxes in these midterm elections will shake the very foundation of Washington and statehouses throughout our nation. The ballot box is our best option and maybe our only opportunity to change things.
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