This is not a political rant. This is not an argument for or against your politics. I have my political positions and I vote my conscience. I don't apologize for that and I don't ask you to apologize for yours if they differ from mine. But it stops there. We must agree on one thing if there is anything left of our nation that can be united. We must agree that every human being has the right to liberty, equal justice under the law, and the pursuit of their own happiness as long as it doesn't infringe on others.

When we limit those American promises to those who fit a certain mold, we've lost our way.

I'll concede that I can't predict the future. I'll also admit that neither side has all the solutions to the complex problems we face as a divided nation -- a nation of 345 million in a world of 7.3 billion. So, we can argue about which government program will be better, which international agreement we should honor or what is the fairest tax system. But we cannot argue about basic human rights -- the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. When we marginalize any segment of our society, we compromise everyone. Each one of us has some attribute that could eventually be considered "not American enough." When any government consolidates power, and decides which of those attributes is not acceptable, it is a short step to fascism. When that government operates with the financial backing of corporate power and money, that short step has been taken and we've arrived.