There has been an overwhelming amount of evidence recently that America's States are anything but united recently. Red states, blue states, left wing extremists, right wing nut-jobs; these are all names we've heard, and also probably used when describing certain people in America.
One term, popularized by pundits like like FOX's Bill O'Reilly, intended for those who speak negatively about the current President and his administration is the label "America Haters." These people believe that our elected officials are not doing a good job. They don't respect George Bush. They think he is incompetent, dishonest and immoral.
Seemingly randomly, let me tell you about the Chicago Bulls. The Chicago Bulls had one of the great dynasties in sports history. They had hall of fame leaders like 9 time NBA Champion Phil Jackson, and arguably the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan helping them achieve greatness. In 8 years, the Bulls won six championships; twice they won three years in a row.
Jordan won five scoring titles, six finals MVP's, and a defensive player of the year award, just to name a few of his numerous accolades. His teammates, while not the most talented in the league, rallied behind him, and Jordan led the Bulls to be the greatest year after year.
It has been ten years since Jordan left Chicago, and the Bulls stink. Despite years of high draft picks and calculated trades, the Bulls failed to even make the playoffs in an extremely weak Eastern Conference this year.
The Bulls current General Manager, John Paxson, is terrible. Some of their players like Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Kirk Heinrich are overrated and overpaid. Tyrus Thomas has a bad attitude and was a bad pick for Chicago. The Ben Wallace signing was awful for a team that already played defense but couldn't score. The recent trade with Cleveland didn't help them and added to the teams financial struggles.
Does it sound like I am a Bulls hater? I just criticized their leaders, ideas and methods. In actuality, they had a great dynasty and I hope that they do well in the future, but for now they are led by a terrible GM. They have had coaches who were ineffective and tried methods that didn't work after they had already failed with this same team. They have made poor choices and are in need of some serious work, and yet I don't hate the Chicago Bulls.
These people falsely labeled "America Haters" don't hate America. Senator Barrack Obama isn't a terrorist-- think how ridiculous a statement that would be. And no one should retaliate to such silly statements by calling the misinformed name callers America Haters because they hate Obama, who is an American. That wouldn't make any sense either.
So the next time you hear anyone, either from the right or the left say that someone is an "America Hater," because they don't like how things are going right now, take time to explain to that person that they are experiencing some confusion.
