From TaylorMarsh.com on February 19, 2008:
"“For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.” - Michelle Obama (video)
The love I have for this country does not depend on a political campaign predicated on the notion of "change."
The love I have for this country does not depend on one person, certainly not some politician with a slogan that others have used, which he has re-used.
The love I have for this country does not depend on aiding the winning of someone for president, without a clue what he or she is offering in the guise of one word, "change."
The love I have for this country does not depend on ignorance of what patriotism requires to serve a personal goal.
My uncle Dick certainly didn't serve his country and get battle fatigue in WWII so people could pick and choose pride in this nation based on personal association to some politician, forgetting the greater glory we all serve through our country's ideals.
My husband, a blue collar man, doesn't support our cause 24/7 because he believes one politician is the answer, or that this moment a deliverer has presented himself through the notion of "change." This blue collar family expects politicians to offer solutions, THAT'S RIGHT, SOLUTIONS, not words or promises of "change."
The love I have for my country does not include following yet another political huckster down a path where he gets the glory he craves, while my blue collar family gets the shaft... again.
The love I have for this country knows no political party bounds.
The love I have for this country also does not require allegiance to some woman's husband, who people have declared the political Messiah in a nation that requires none, because WE THE PEOPLE will save ourselves, provided some political incompetent doesn't think unity is more important than the Democratic ideals that have proved important to us all.
The love I have for this country means that I will walk through the fires of hell to keep someone unqualified for the presidency of the United States from acquiring that position, successful or not and regardless of what it costs me personally, which doesn't matter one whit compared to this nation I hold dear. I will not swear allegiance to any person who offers platitudes in the disguise of the presidential, on the wings of some amorphous promise of "change."
The love I have for this country makes me an American first, a Democrat second. Never before in my life have I been more aware of this fact than I was after I thought long and hard about Michelle Obama's comments, not able to brush them aside, though that was my first instinct and said so, only to hear her words flash before me again and again, finally causing something to rise up deep inside me to scream NOT THIS AMERICAN.
Michelle Obama does not speak for me.
Proud to be an American, after forty plus years, because of some "change" that's promised, but not described?
I've been proud to be an American my whole life. It doesn't depend on some personal attachment to someone I'm trying to elevate to leader, through some word that he has not yet defined.
The love I have for this country has nothing to do with Michelle Obama's Me-Me-Me mantra. The narcissistic, self centered, arrogant insult delivered by Michelle Obama, representing a man who hopes to talk his way into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is a slap at the American spirit that runs throughout this country, regardless of political party, race, gender, creed, religion, you name it, and the word "change" alone can't alter the course on which we are disastrously careening without a plan.
I am a proud American first. A liberal second. But Michelle Obama will never speak for me. Not until I know the definition of "change" that's being offered amidst a record that doesn't come close to measuring up to all the endless talk."
