Commentary Death of the nation’s intellect

   I cried. I sat down on my couch at 2 a.m., when I knew the nation’s intellect had died, and I cried for all the things that could have been, that should have been and that would have been had it not been for the fear-mongering of George W. Bush.

   Never mind the fact that we have never ousted a President in a time of war; never mind that Bush’s approval ratings were over 55 percent at one point; never mind that we haven’t been attacked since 9-11. Those things become mere sideshows when we remember that the man is a complete idiot. Not only did he completely destroy our reputation in the global community by dragging us into the quagmire known as Iraq, he misled the American people while making sure his corporate cronies were safe and economically secure.

   This election should have been a clean sweep for the Democrats. They should have swept both the executive and the legislative branches without any trouble. The reason they failed can be summed up in two words: Protestant Christians.

   The word liberal has become synonymous with “godless heathen” because it is a common, but incorrect, belief that Democrats cannot be Christians. Because liberals fight for the rights of minorities, because they serve as a voice for those that are often silenced in this “democracy” we live in, because they aren’t scared of the “queers” and what their “faggot” beliefs will do to the moral fabric of our society — they are godless heathens.

   I cannot begin to count the people who came up to me after the election and said (with a straight face), “I was going to vote for that Kerry, but when I got in there and saw that gay marriage amendment — I just went with the Bible and voted for George W. Bush.” Statements like these make me ashamed to live in America. We go to Afghanistan and disband the Taliban because they run a theocracy that is grounded in religion and then 59 million Americans go and vote for a man who believes he was “sent here by God to do a job.”

   I wore black on Wednesday to mourn the death of the nation’s intellect. I stand up for the rights of minorities, I stand up for the rights of homosexuals – the silent minority many of us would like to forget about; I stand up for a women’s right to choose; I don’t want prayer in public schools or “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Compare that with fear mongering, lying to the people I pledged to protect, and attempting to legislate hatred into the Constitution — and you can call me a godless heathen any day.

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