I go by principle, not by party. Despite my socialist-slant to the left, I do not personally support Obama. And yet I find myself being constantly attacked by my radically conservative family. It's no help that my father subscribes to Ann Coulter's newsletter (which to me is the equivalent of reading satanically-stained apostate texts) or that my brother is borderline fascist.
Yesterday, as if trying to convince me that Obama is Satan incarnate, despite my repeated affirmations that I DO NOT support him, my mother recounted a story of a recent heckling at an Obama rally. During Obama's speech, someone stood up and commented that the meeting had not begun with the Pledge of Allegiance. The person accusingly demanded to know why Obama had not begun his rally with the Pledge. Obama stopped his speech and asked the man to lead them in the Pledge, which he did, before continuing on.
I knew my mother would twist this to an Obama-hates-America spiel. But as she told me the story, I couldn't help but get a picture in my mind of a similar incident. Every so often, someone in church forgets to start a meeting with a prayer and someone will stop the meeting and make everyone bow their heads before moving on.
Ann Coulter may write books about Democrats who make health care and energy-alternatives their god in her book Godless, but as I listened to this story, I couldn't help but think: Republicans have made America their god, and the Pledge of Allegiance their prayer.
