This is my country

I heard a piece on the radio today that suggested minorities were outraged by the disrespect paid to Barak Obama. The town hall meetings organized by the right are acrimonious, the accusations of creating a socialist country unfounded, questioning of all things a politicization of a speech to school children and the "You lie" invective from a South Carolina House member. Many are feeling that this president is being treated with increasing disrespect. I am also feeling that.

After last winter's victory I was extatic. I was happy with how Obama was handling the economy and it seemed that by summertime the country was rolling along. I left the country for two months and I could feel that the honeymoon was over. Even my wife snarled a little when she talked about the health plan. The radical right has had enough time to organize rude demonstrations and town meetings in the name of free speech. Some of this approach I know is pushed by money interests in our country, especially insurance companies when it comes to health care. But I look back at a time when Michael Moore's movie was making a hit in the theater and I begin to wonder where all the support for universal health care has gone.

I am feeling yet another step removed from this country. I have never felt very "patriotic". In elementary school prayers were more important than the salute to the flag. My dad, a democrat switched to a Republican when George McGovern called for an end to the war and Richard Nixon called for peace with honor. In the end after all the arguments my dad's words, "You were right." were such an unchacteristic vindication. In the early seventies my 3 month journey to Europe made me feel that they over there actually had a better way of living that ours over here.

Then eight years of the absolutely most corrupt inept government I can imagine. It has left me soured on the American system of democracy. It may go back to Socrates' criticism of democracy- the theory that many people follow the crowd like sheep. When I hear an appeal to patriotism, I run the other way. When I hear people critisize Obama because he is making the country socialist, I only wish that this was true. For me Obama is too conservative. I suppose there are some redeeming characteristics to flag wavers, but I am finding it difficult to see those positives these days. They add nothing of any intellegence to the discussions that I have heard.

So I find myself wishing that I live somewhere else. I wish that I lived in a country that could communicate as an equal in the world. I wish that I lived in a country that could give health care to all of its people. I wish that I lived in a country that funded education adequitly. I wish that I lived in a country without insurance companies. I wish that I lived in a country with the lowest military budget in the world instead of the highest. I wish that I lived in a country where people are fluent in atleast two languages.

Where can I go?