The moral hypocrisy

Do you ever get that feeling that you don't belong? Thursday, President Bush's inauguration promised me four more years of feeling out of place.\nAs a Democrat living in one of the two blue counties in Indiana, I was able to fool myself into believing that Kerry had a chance at winning. The November election showed how wrong I was. I thought the Bush administration was on its way out, but in reality, our country will continue to be dominated by the tyranny of the majority. Ideologically driven hypocrites, who hide behind their Bibles and religious rhetoric, will still be allowed to dismantle democracy and pen anti-democratic policies like the Patriot Act.\nAs long as they do it in a Christian manner, I guess it's OK. \nThe vast majority of the population voted on moral grounds. These are some of the moral issues that re-elected Bush.\nAt a White House press conference, Bush stated that he would support a new constitutional amendment "defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and a woman as husband and wife." The constitution guarantees rights, not takes them away. I can't fathom why homosexual marriage so frightens his base, the Christian right, or in what way it could threaten the "sanctity" of heterosexual marriage. It's ignorant to think that America would become a giant gay orgy if homosexuals were given the right to marry. What's wrong with two people loving one another? \nGay marriage isn't the only moral problem on the agenda.\nBush also thinks abortion is immoral, and that it should be illegal. Here is the thing: No one can take away the right to not have an abortion. You don't need an amendment to guarantee that right. Forcing your beliefs onto others is morally arrogant, and in any case, I'm not sure two drunken teenagers who fooled around after a Friday night football game should become parents. \nThe fact that Bush is against premarital sex is understandable. I'd be against premarital sex, too, if I had daughters who looked like his. I wouldn't want them drinking either. The only problem is that Bush is a former fraternity and secret society member, not to mention that he is a recovered alcoholic and a convicted drunk driver. I guarantee he didn't practice what he preaches.\nYet somehow Bush won. \nThe Republicans should be commended. Bush lied to the American people and was caught. Bush claimed victory in a war with no end in sight, and while he never served in an active military unit, he was willing to put soldiers at risk by provoking terrorists, telling them to do their worst and "Bring it on." This president gave his buddies sweetheart tax cuts, with an impact the majority of voters will never feel. All of these facts are common knowledge, and I would think they would have made it impossible for his re-election. But 60,608,582 people told me otherwise. \nI am confused by the results of the election. I have watched as the Bush administration weakened the line between Church and State, as they lost us prestige in the eyes of the world and as they created a huge debt for my generation. It seems to me that America has made a deal, trading civil liberties, i.e. policies like the Patriot Act, for a "righteous" government. People seem more worried about gays running amok than they do about the federal deficit. I can only hope that this phase in America is temporary. I don't think that most people realize that Bush's inauguration yesterday showed to the world that we as Americans support his hypocrisy. I feel like a stranger, because as I look around, it all seems so clear to me. \nWhat is it that 60,608,582 people see that I don't?