The crushing defeat of the Republican party and the bad press they've been getting has caused a lot of backlash. I think of it this way: I have a wonderful dog, a white german shepherd. She is the sweetest dog in the world. But recently, I adopted a new dog. I brought him home, and my shepherd tried to kill him. I saw her barking furiously, showing her teeth and trying to rip his throat out. Maybe she was scared, maybe she just didn't want someone else on her terriroty.

Regardless, I see a similar reaction with this protest. The Republican party, like my shepherd, has had its day in the sun, generally pissing off the rest of the world with the kind of "We're richer, we have the best weapons, and we have Jesus on our side" attitude. But they are no longer the ruling party. And instead of my dog fighting back, it is my mother and brother, who have told me in the last few days that "Obama took the guns and ammunition out of Wal-Mart," "We can't trust this Muslim to lead us," and "We are going to the Tea Party to show that communist what we think."

Since Critical Thinking courses are basically non-existent in high school and not required in college, and political science courses are not part of high school curriculae (and there is no reason to take them in college unless you are obtaining a poly sci degree), most Americans do not have basic critical thinking skills, are strongly geocentric and ethnocentric, and are generally naive about the rest of the world. They've never had to speak another language except for recreation, and yet they will torment an Indian man over his accent and skin color who has worked his entire life to come to this country and do my job better than I ever could. They cannot identify basic fallacies and live their lives based on emotion, selfishness, and opportunism. The American Dream that Republicans sell is, "Work hard and you'll have anything you want." The truth is, for the majority of people, the American Dream is, "You can have nice stuff if you work hard enough and if you have really good luck, but you will be in debt for the rest of your life." We see rappers and athletes declaring bankruptcy, and it is these same people on countless celebrity worship TV shows that are beamed to the US citizens, encouraging them to believe that if they just work hard enough, they will become rich and be able to join in the unsustainable spending and under-accumulation of wealth.

Plainly, these people don't know how well they have it. We are the richest, most powerful, and most free nation in the world. We have low taxes compared to much of the world and enjoy similar benefits (aside from national health care). Ironically, we are also one of the unhealthiest and stupidest nations. Just look at Yahoo! Answers. Plainly, people that are not intelligent are easy prey for people that want to gain power by using scare tactics and religion. This is not to say there aren't good arguments against Obama's platforms. There are of course hyper-intelligent "Republicans" as there are hyper-intelligent "Democrats," but I think many of the people who helped Obama get elected, just as the many people that are protesting today simply go along with the herd, especially when there are cult figures like Boortz, Savage, O'Reilly, and Keyes telling them that Obama is a pinko communist who is personally buying all the guns in the world and planning to melt them down and make the largest bathhouse in the world before painting butterflies on our new solar-powered tanks, giving our soldiers daffodils and Pink Heart medals, and using our military to create a one world Communist government.

So I think say the majority of these people are protesting for the sake of protesting, because some talking head told them to do so, because they have nothing better to do, or because they are afraid and wounded. Maybe a few have poured over statistics and are genuinely concerned, but polls have shown that this is a deeply partisan protest. Regardless, as Obama said, “It’s a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they presided over a doubling of the national debt. I’m not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility.”

I am just amazed that the left and right have change places in an important way - in the past, the Left has been characterized by blood and violence, by shouting in the streets, by holding idealism above realism. Now Republicans are in the street, Christians and people with Bill O'Reilly books are murdering left-wingers, and they are spouting bile and encouraging violent mania, and hoping to their God that Obama fails. Meanwhile, we liberals with our heads in the clouds are quietly going about our days, being "brainwashed" by the limp and understated NPR, and wondering what the hell the fuss is all about.

Boy, I am going to get some major flack for this post... ::sweats::

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