I'm more American than you!!!!!

Seriously folks. Because I hadn't had my fill of celery and self loathing (thank you Weight Watchers), I decided to watch Scarborough Country. I thought I needed to serve some penance after beating up on some Conservatives.

Joe starts off babbling about The Oscars. I have had my fill of The Oscars and really didn't care to hear any more, so I was only listening to him yammer away out of one ear. I think it was the left. Anyhoooo....Joe starts ripping into George Clooney and the Hollywood types for living in a world that is not his. Translation = Hollywood is out of touch with core, American values.

Here we go again.

Joe yammers on and on and on. Quite frankly, I can't tell you exactly what he said. I will share my perception, though. Basically, Average Joe feels that "his" America is the right America. If you don't share Joe's values...you're just not American enough.

Who decides who/whom is American enough? Who has this right to decide that if you're not goose-stepping en masse, you're not a patriot? I have had it up to my eyeballs listening to people say that those of us who do not necessarily agree with everything, who do not necessarily fall in line with the general public and can form our own opinions based upon fact and not rhetoric are just not American. Against the war in Iraq...unAmerican. Won't shop at Wal-Mart...unAmerican. Speak a foreign language...unAmerican. A different color...well, you're not unAmerican, you're just screwed.

The last time I checked, I paid my taxes. The last time I checked, I voted in an election (and not just that "general election" either). The last time I checked, my passport was still blue, with that snappy eagle on the front.

I am absolutely fed up with the (sorry to generalize) Right telling anyone who is not drinking from their punch bowl that they are unAmerican. This Country, the one I love, was founded by a group of men who did not fall in line with their leadership. They wanted a different way of life. They challenged assumptions and questioned authority. Our Founding Fathers (including those at Lexington, Concord and Valley Forge, to name a few) did not sacrifice their well being and their lives to blindly follow whatever authority was foisted upon them. Our Nation was established on the right to question, challenge and change.

I think it's high time that the opposition changes it's platform from the usual crying foul to a more ardent position. It's time to remind the Right that there are other POVs...just as relevant...if not more in tune with current social mores and realities. It's time to step up, be loud and take this bitch back. The only alternative is drinking the punch. And...quite frankly...I don't care for punch.

That...and I'm really #@&(-ing pissed off.