Critical Thought; Your Civic Duty.

Time to get more serious here at the coffeeshop, if only for a moment. I am at the moment, a card carrying Republican. I think you all can guess who my pick was in the primaries. I also think you already know that I have absolutely no respect for either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, so either way the pendulum swings tomorrow, I will be stuck with an elected official I can not stand. I have been reading some posts online from friends I hold dear, urging everyone to "stand by" and "support" whomever will be our President for the next four years. Although I care for my friends and hold them in high regard, I must politely disagree with this statement. In my opinion, blindly supporting an elected official, just because they won the election, is...well..stupid. Sure, in places like North Korea, you are expected to give your devotion, trust and support to whomever rules the country, but in a democracy, you have every right to question your representatives. You have every right to SAY that you disagree and question their policies. And In my opinion, being critical of your representatives, even if you voted for that person, is not just a right, but your most important civic duty. Discourse is necessary in a democracy. If you don't, you may as well live in a place like North Korea. Please don't ask me to "support" whomever wins tomorrow and certainly don't tell me I am being unpatriotic, because I vehemently will not support either choice. It is like telling Italians in the 1930's; "Hey, that Mussolini dude is an asshole, but he's your leader so you should be pariotic and support him anyway." Even if my choice of candidate had won the primaries and then the election, I would continue to think about is decisions n a critical manner, and if you are any kindof patriot, so will you after tomorrow.