I direct this question to everyone who watches Fox News, reads a Rupert Murdoch owned newspaper, listens to Rush or Hannity, and votes Republican. You talk of freedom, patriotism, the Constitution, and the Tea Party. You keep using these words, but I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
I'll give you a little background about the person asking the question. My first political act came at the age of 11 when I, along with a friend composed a congratulatory poem and mailed it to President Jimmy Carter. Eight years later, my second political act was to cast my first presidential vote to re-elect President Reagan. Now if you think my poem at age 11 invalidates my vote for Reagan at 19 and renders my current positions meaningless, who do you think you are?
I used to consider myself a middle of the road kind of guy. I'm a middle child! I thought that Governor Pataki won his first election in New York largely due to his pro death penalty stance and I had no problem with it. When I told my brother I had changed my position on the issue of the death penalty, he asked if I was now for it. The opposite is true. I had been for it and now I am against it. I think I'm a moderate, my brother thinks I'm a socialist, and I think he's a wing-nut.
I'm an American and proud of it. I'm a "Real American" and I have the birth certificate to prove it, thank you very much. I love this country and even though I have the right to bear arms, I am very happy that I feel secure enough not to feel the need to avail myself of that right. I am also proud of my Jewish heritage, and hearing Fox paid pundits say that we're a Christian Nation makes me cringe. Who do you think you are?
I've got John Adams, a Founding Father specifically saying that we are not a Christian Nation. I have Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the drafter of a little thing we call "The Declaration of Independence" talking about a wall between Church and State. What have you got?
Regarding your tea party, do you have any clue as to what it was about? I ask because Congresswoman Bachmann, who seems to be a Tea Party favorite has talked about how we need to have a discussion about taxation WITH representation, as if there's a problem with that. The Boston Tea Party protests were about representation- not taxation. Really, who do you think you are?
When you, or one of your friends (Craig T Nelson) needs welfare or food stamps, that's okay, but when I or my friends need that same help we're lazy black people. I'm not black, but I may be lazy, or as Rick Santorum would say "Blah." You are apparently okay with someone defrauding Medicare and Medicaid to the tune of billions of dollars (Rick Scott was guilty of this) but you would deny life saving care via these same programs to poor people.
You claim to be for freedom, but you hate choices. You claim to hate government intrusion, but you don't believe in a Constitutional right to privacy. You are children of immigrants and protest against immigration rights. While you say that your objection is restricted to illegal immigration, do you really know for a fact that your forebears came here legally? Would Native Americans agree with your answer to that last question?
While on the subject of immigration, you practically drummed Senator Jon McCain out of your party in 2006 for his reform bill. Two years later, he is your candidate for President. Governor Romney reformed healthcare in Massachusetts vaulting him to the top of the field for the Presidency. Once President Obama got essentially the same law passed, Romney disavowed it. Despite spending the 2 years since its passage trying to repeal it, you nominated its founder for President. Who do you think you are?