One Big Happy Family

So, I was watching the first presidential debate and yelling at the TV at various times because, you know, Jim Lehrer just kept fricking SITTING there letting Mitt gnaw on the microphones and talk over the top of the President of the United States.  Not that I was bitter.

Nooooo, ma'am.

What got me bitter was when Mitt Romney, when REFERENCING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, said that we were a nation who believed we were all children of the same god.

Children.  Of.  The.  Same.  God.

The same one.

The.  Same.

Lawsamercy, Mitt Romney, you are trying to make me call you ugly names and I'm trying not to do that for the next few weeks.

Let me explain something to you, Mitt.  It's going to be hard for you to understand, because your experiences are so insulated by your birthrights of wealth and faith.

This nation doesn't believe we are all children of the same god.  A healthy portion of us don't believe that we are children of any god whatsoever.  Some of us believe we are the children of several gods.  Or that the gods didn't actually, you know, mean to be our parental figures.  Or that spirituality doesn't have to include gods.  With respect, a big chunk of this nation doesn't think that YOU are a child of God at all because your Heavenly Father has a wife, dude.

I mean, I get it.  I know what you were trying to do.  What with that pesky economy and health care you had to keep discussing, you couldn't bring up any of the religion-soaked fear points that your party has coasted on for the last decade or so.  You had to bring up God somewhere so that tomorrow morning, conservative pundits could harp on the fact that the president didn't and that means he's removing God from America because he's a Muslim (same God, by the way, Mitt...look it up...) and a communist and Ayn Rand (the atheist) hates him.

But did you HAVE to do it while talking about the document that states that the Federal government can't make laws that establish a religion?  Did you HAVE to do it in the same sound byte during which you talked about the pursuit of happiness that, for you, apparently is all about income and not about equal protection under law?  Because your god (or at least, your interpretation of your god) isn't really big on a lot of people I love pursuing happiness--and I'm framing "happiness" as "enjoying equal protection under law."

With whatever respect your place in history has allowed that I give to you, Mr. Romney, let me just go ahead and say that you and I are not spiritual kin.  Like, at all.  We are not a part of some big family of God-believers that just had a family reunion.  That wasn't a family reunion, Mr. Romney.  It was a presidential debate.  If elected, you will be president of a whole bunch of people who think you are a weirdo for your spiritual beliefs and you will still have to serve their best interests.

THAT is the problem with you, Mitt Romney.  You don't seem to get it.  You can't lump us all together in the tidy little boxes that suit your political needs.  You can't assert that we're a nation that believes we're all children of the same god while talking about the Constitution a few days after it came out that you pretty much believed that half of our country isn't worth your time and effort.   Because that would mean that you think that half of your spiritual brothers and sisters were NOT YOUR PROBLEM.  And I'm sorry, but I know enough about the theologies of most of the faiths around that this is directly against the teachings of those faiths.

The Golden Rule, Mitt.  You probably need to look that one up, too.

Just a little sisterly advice.