You are out there and you are waiting to speak.

You’ve seen your country knocked sideways for several years by the worst of its citizens and politicians and media. 

You’ve seen a centrist President undermined each and every step by those who wish to bring him down at the expense of the American people. No, he hasn’t done all you desire, but being an adult, you realize that no President will. You’ve seen him accomplish a litany of important things, domestically and internationally, while dealing with a nihilistic Congress. You realize that after our near-Depression, no one was going to make the jobs instantly reappear, no Democrat, no Republican, no Independent.

You know that those who claim to wish the government had no power while they seek that very power themselves are liars. You know that both the government and the free-market system are vital to our interests. That the government nurtured the Internet for decades until it was favorable enough for venture capital to carry it. You know that the stimulus money given to lithium battery factories in Michigan has brought life to a burgeoning industry that would have not otherwise gotten off the ground. You know that the government saved the auto industry at minimal cost by acting decisively and quickly.

You know that when Teapublicans claim that restoring fair tax levels on the wealthy is tantamount to class warfare, that, in fact, class warfare has been waged by the Right on the middle class for three decades, by people who came wrapped in flags and crosses. They claim to love children while their policies have caused the country to fall to 41st in global rankings of infant mortality rate. You’ve seen Teapublicans, so allergic to taxes on those with the most, fighting to remove the President’s payroll tax breaks on working class people. You’ve seen the richest 1% of the country grow ever richer because the system has been rigged.

You know that the Tea Party members are just useful stooges for venal politicans, the way Born Again Christians were before them. You know that a group of white people who realized that Washington was imperfect the moment a black person become President is, at best, dubious.

You’ve seen your country hijacked by the venal, the prejudiced, the loud, the ignorant, the wrongminded, the loony, the corrupt and the monied. And all along they’ve been outnumbered by rational, peaceful, progressive people, greatly outnumbered, but their disgraceful behavior has gone unchallenged, unanswered.

You are out there and you are waiting to speak. You wait and wait to be born, and it continues until the moment you realize that you aren’t just the child of that movement but the parent of it as well.•