Okay peoples. Check this letter out:

After stumbling through a few days of post-election disbelief, disappointment and denial, I now find myself feeling strangely liberated. I've come to realize I've been worrying unnecessarily about a lot of people - e.g., young draft age folks, people in poverty, soldiers in Iraq, women at risk for unwanted pregnancy, people without health insurance, etc. - who do not give a damn about themselves or others like them. As long as they can keep gay people from marrying, they're apparently content to live in ignorance, ambiguity and squalor, and have their children come home from Iraq without arms and legs.
When an anti-gay marriage amendment (which included removal of all civil union protections and legal rights for children of gay parents) can pass in Georgia by 79%, I can now stop worrying about helping people in that state. Clearly, the people in the "red" states have decided that poverty, war, illiteracy, job loss, no health insurance and no civil rights are less important than keeping Adam and Steve (or is it Steven?) from living next door. Alabama defeated a proposition to eliminate Jim Crow era segregation language from it's Constitution! That means the folks in Alabama are still undecided if African-Americans are actually people! When I learned that 99% of soldiers serving in Iraq voted for Bush again, I realized I can stop worrying about them or trying to bring them home. They are doing what they want to be doing and they voted accordingly.
If younger voters couldn't put aside their Playstations long enough to actually vote, then their choice will have consequences. If they face a draft, well, they can blame themselves. In fact, all of these groups will have to face the consequences of their choice to support George W. Bush. Thankfully, I can breathe a sigh of relief they will get exactly what they wanted.
I think us "blue" voters should stop trying to reason with the unreasonable and encourage like minded blue people to leave those red states. Let's invite them to California or to the rest of the blue states. Let them bring their creativity, economic clout, compassion, charity, tolerance, ideas, belief in Science, etc. to states which think rationally and leave the rest of the freaks to fend for themselves. What? Your trailer park in south Florida got swept away by a tornado and you need food, clothing and donations? Sorry. Don't look at me. Ask the red neck next door to put down his six pack and get you a money order and bail you out. We are often discouraged because we continue to look to these people to have a light bulb moment - but let's face it: it's not going to happen. There will be no epiphany. They will not realize their own hypocrisy. They will never realize that democracy applies to everyone. They will never understand that poverty and ignorance damages a society beyond belief. They will never acknowledge that a personal belief in God is just that, a personal belief, not a legislative one. They will never acknowledge that a single mom choosing between paying the electric bill and providing medical care for her child is not a moral failing on her part, but on society's. There's an expression that you should never wrestle with a pig because the pig likes it and you just end up getting dirty. Sounds a little crazy, right? I've never felt more free.

I think we have all had pangs of this sentiment at some point. The problem is that people who really believe in the inherent good in humankind, in the continued upward progress of society, in the notion that the United States of America was founded on sound and just values, cannot afford to take this route. We must continue fighting. The sentiments like the ones above will create another rift, another divide to contend with - in addition to the division between the two major political parties and the 'apparent' moral polarization that's occurring, we will have division within our own party, in our own camp. We will not only have to convince those who disagree with us that we are listening and that we want to find the common ground, but also convince those who share our beliefs that these are endeavors worth undertaking.

The letter above seems best suited for the Rants and Raves section of Craigslist, and perhaps it was meant to merely be a venting exercise (did it myself – you know, "gonna buy my .223" and all that nonsense); perhaps I've merely been brainwashed by my recent rapid-fire viewing of the three Lord of the Rings movies. However, one can never lose hope and integrity and determination; one can never turn away from the belief that there's good in the world and it's worth fighting for (I think I may have just bitten Samwise - what the hell have I become?). I’m serious, though - right now it looks like three hundred against ten thousand, and it sure feels like that, what with the two major branches of government under conservative control and the third about to become more conservative, and deeply so, in the next year or two. If, however, we remain strong and continue to fight for what is right - what is just and fair, as often as possible - then we will eventually succeed. We cannot even afford to think otherwise. Allow me to provide you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson, which he said (or wrote) in 1798 following the passage of the Sedition Act:

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. . . . If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

Principles do not have time for dismissals like the one above. We’re not supposed to become ignorant, stubborn jerkfaces with the the face of a jerk just because the President and some members of his Administration are so. Folks fighting in the military because that was their only option, the impoverished, single moms, victims of unwanted pregnancy…who will fight for them if we don’t? The people of whom this person writes “will never realize that democracy applies to everyone” only if we let that happen.

And the letter is so terribly reductive – does anyone really believe that young people didn’t put down their Playstations long enough to campaign and register and vote? Does the writer not know even one person who could face a draft (and the draft that’s been turning over in the rumor mill casts a wide net, believe me – no hiding in college, no dipping to Canada, none of that stuff). Does he or she expect the soldiers in Iraq to be wise, well-read, college-educated folk who learn about the nuances of US foreign policy in The Atlantic Monthly? Does he or she really think everyone in a red state is a conservative war-mongering redneck? Do you guys? Well, dig this excerpt from a guest column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution by Jamal Simmons, a PR consultant who has worked on several campaigns for Southern Democrats:

“For all the blue state rhetoric, it is the red states of Arizona, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado and Kansas that currently have at least one minority or female Democratic governor or U.S. senator. If you include female Republicans, add the red states of Utah, Texas, North Carolina and Alaska. Yet, there are neither women nor minorities in those statewide offices in the blue states of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Those allegedly enlightened states all voted for John Kerry. In fact, the Massachusetts delegation doesn't even have one woman or minority member of Congress anymore.”

Aside from being – at least in part – ashamed of ourselves and of our hypocrisy here in blueland, we should reconsider whether our redland characterizations are even vaguely mature or based in fact any more than myth. And as I wrote above and in an earlier post, we need to listen. Mr Simmons continues:

“We need to acknowledge that red states are not filled with backward-looking "religious nuts," but instead with people who share our desire for equal treatment under the law and a secure future for their children. They want to be safe from the threat of terrorists, feel a little more financially secure and have a government that does not monitor their every action. We've all had time to attack the red states. Now it's time to start listening to them.”

In essence, you don’t refrain from wrestling a pig because you’re going to get dirty; you refrain because it’s a pig and you’re a human being (unless, of course, you’ve got a few beers in you and it seems like a good idea at the time. Then, you wrestle away). All jokes aside, though, we are faced with a challenge to be the bigger person, to face the problems and find a solution, not to give up and move to Cali.

I know I probably just preached to the choir here, and I’m having a little vent of my own. There are many, many things that are troubling to read these days, but perhaps most troubling is to read a call to apathy, a treatise on the freedom that retreat provides. Let’s listen as much as we speak, keep fighting the good fight, and take our country back.

Chucky