Sunshine Patriots

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
Thomas Paine in The American Crisis (1776)


I've tried to keep away from politics on my blog since the end of the election because I didn't feel the need to gloat after President Obama won another four years in the White House. This was mostly because the results of this election did not bring me a feeling of elation like in 2008 but instead a feeling of relieve. Relieve that most people understood going backward politically and socially the way the Republican Party wanted us to was not going to be good for our country. Now 15 days later I'm ready to jump back in. Why? Because of the reactions of Romney supporters to their candidate's loss- and I'm not just talking about the voters.

In the last 15 days I've read many articles detailing the numerous ways in which the Republican Party has blamed everyone but themselves for losing the election. I've read stories about people threatening to move to Canada. I've heard stories about people being upset with President Obama's win because the are absolutely certain he is a "Communist" or a "Muslim Plant" and that his reelection is prove that democracy in America is coming to an end. (Oh, all you people calling President Obama a communist? What you mean to call him is a socialist since he has been accused of pushing socialism with his health care plan. There is a difference.)

And I've read stories about people filing petitions in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indian, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas to have their states secede from the Union. Shades of 1861!

I first thought these were the reactions of a group of very poor losers to what to them was a very shocking loss. Now I see that what some of these people are trying to do is nothing less than unpatriotic and that they may even be stepping over the line into traitorous behavior. I can already hear the shouts of dismay coming from all you true Americans who say you are only following what is written in The Deceleration of Independence:

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government."

Crap. Pure unadulterated crap. Read it again. It says that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, which is just what democracy is all about. In a democracy the will of the majority takes precedent over the will of the minority. And how do we know just what the will of the majority is? We vote, every four years we vote, just like we did 15 days ago. We voted and by our vote we, the majority, gave our consent to be governed. Democracy in action.

So, all of you who do not like the outcome of this election and consider yourselves the only true Americans and the only true patriots, face it, by your actions you are proving that you are neither. You are nothing but Sunshine Patriots, willing to believe in democracy only when it favors you whether you are in the majority or not . Some of you are perfectly willing to tear the government apart just to get your way and that, my friends, is not only un-American, and unpatriotic, it is treason.