Final Election Thoughts

I had NO intention of writing a blog on the elections, but I posted a status this morning, and it was FB status length, and I need to clarify and hopefully undo the way I may have offended some people.  I am not, however, backing down off of what I said earlier.

As the election went on, and this morning, some of my FB friends threatened to leave the country for Canada and/or London if their chosen candidate (usually Romney) lost the election.  To those people I said this morning, and I say again, good bye and (frankly) good riddance.  I'm sorry if this offends you, and I'll explain myself more later, but let that simmer.

That statement was not, however, directed at all, or exclusively, conservative voters.  No, only those people who are threatening to move elsewhere strictly because of an election.  I'll back that up again in a minute, too, but I have friends of all different leanings, and they're my friends because they believe what they believe, passionately, and are willing to back it up and fight for what they believe.  I love all of my conservative friends who stand for their beliefs as much as I love my liberal, moderate, etc. friends.  I did not call anyone anything besides selfish this morning, and that was only to a very small sect of people whose statuses on FB this morning (and in previous weeks) threatened to leave the country just because of the results of the election.  I also have a sneaky feeling that you'd be hugely disappointed when you landed in these foreign countries and discover that they are even more liberal than our current administration.

Now, here's why that fires me up so.  That is not an American idea, in my opinion.  We fought for this country in the latter part of the 18th century.  Excuse me, our forefathers fought for this country.  Don't bother me with nitpicky BS about why people originally settled here.  That doesn't change the fact that Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hancock, etc, fought against all odds to claim our independence from Great Britain.  If we're truly to honor our predecessors, then we shan't run off to another country because things didn't go our way.  We'd stay behind and fight (in a much more 21st century way) for what we believe in.  Make things "right" here.  Even if you can't change people's minds, change their lives.  Do good.  Stand up for what you believe.  My candidate didn't win, but I still love my country.  Like I said this morning, if you're going to leave, your patriotism is showing, and it's broken.  Patriots stay and fight.  Patriots will be honored on Sunday and Monday during Veteran's Day.

I did not call anyone an idiot or question anyone's intelligence this morning.  I am not saying I didn't mean to (I didn't mean to), I'm saying that I didn't.  You allowed yourself to be offended if I offended you, and I'll stick by that.  I offended people who aren't courageous enough to fight for what they believe.