I will come out and say it, right off the bat, that President Obama was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the work he has done up to this point…but that is not the point of this posting.  No, the point is that we live in a political climate where something as praiseworthy as receiving one of the most prestigious awards in the world is met with scorn by political opponents.

It is obvious, at this point, that most far-right Republican leaders, pundits, and organizations are more concerned with Obama failing than our nation succeeding – or to put it much more harshly, these people want our country to fail in order to prove a point.  These people are putting personal gain above national need.  There is a word for this…it is treason.

Yes, treason.

They are showing disloyalty and a willful desire to disrupt the workings of the state that goes beyond the sacred right to protest.  During the Bush administration many left commentators questioned policy and actions of the president by standing up and shouting at the top of their lungs how they wish that more would be done or less would be done…but at no point did commentators wish that he failed at his job.  Fairly or unfairly, many of the people protesting simply felt that he already had failed.

This is not what we see today.  Rush Limbaugh, one of the de facto leaders of the Republican Party, famously wished that Obama would fail; organizations cheer when Chicago looses its bid for the Olympics and panic when the nation’s leader tells children to stay in school; Glen Beck blatantly accuses the president of racism; Teabaggers bring firearms to rallies in a clear act of intimidation towards the nations leader and supporters and Congressmen shout at the President when addressing the nation.

On the playground we call these actions bullying, on the national stage we call it sedition. It is not how our Republic should be run.

I sincerely believe that this is not the mindset of the majority of Republicans who disagree with Obama – they have legitimate concerns about the policies he is putting forth, just as the left had concerns about the policies of the Bush era. But I also believe that there is a sizable minority of Republicans who are overtly undermining our democratically elected leader in order to insert a radical agenda that benefits only them and not the nation.

It should be noted that our system has a more peaceful way of removing leaders that is the epitome of patriotism – the act of voting. We as a nation either support or oppose the President every two years and decide if he is failing our nation every four. But I don’t know of any true American that wants our nation fail simply because they don’t like the leader of the country.

I am proud of my liberal ideology, and I am not afraid to express my displeasure at the policies that any leader puts forth. But if I had to choose between country and party, my country will win every time – I am an American first and foremost. I would never wish for my leader to fail and, by extension, our country to fail to do otherwise would mean that we all have failed.

E pluribus unum indeed.