Last week’s midterm elections painted a not-so-pretty picture for the Democratic Party.

But the Democrats deserved and continue to deserve to lose.

They’ve shown to be gutless, spineless, yellow-bellied individuals ever since this cycle started.

Our country has been in economic recovery for the past six years. Seven million people now have health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act. And unemployment is below six percent.

Our military presence in the Middle East has declined. Government transparency has increased.

We’ve seen Wall Street reform and consumer protection. And spending has been lower than any time since Eisenhower was president.

And all of this under the leadership of Socialist, Kenyan communist. At least, that’s what they call him in public.

I can only imagine what terms people use in the privacy of their country clubs and prayer rallies.

The problem we faced this election season was that the Democrats failed to own up to their title.

They ran away from the president because he’s unpopular. Candidates like Mary Landrieu opted to have Hillary and Bill Clinton stump for them because they’re safe.

Now would be the time that I say something about the Democrats losing because America is still an incredibly racist country, but I think I’ll spare the online administrator of this paper’s website the pain of having to approve the comments that will surely come from all the racists with a black friend.

Instead, I want to talk about how the Democrats have succumbed to their own racism in failing to claim the president and all of his achievements.

It’s a very important midterm cycle and the Democrats treated their MVP as if he were that one family member we all hope doesn’t show up for Thanksgiving dinner.

For goodness sake, it’s 2014 people!

I mean it’s not like the president is gay.

You’d think the party of liberal utopists wouldn’t be afraid to decry the clear racism of the electorate. But no, they placated the fear and intolerance of the average voter by keeping a man with a hefty list of accomplishments and the first black president of this country at arm’s length.

Now before this goes any further, I feel I need to clear something up for those who slept through freshman sociology.

Racism does not mean you hate black people.

Racism is systemic oppression and control over a minority group within a population.

I am a racist.

Not because I hate black people (I don’t), but because I take part in a system that inherently benefits me because I am a white man.

I recognize this. I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s fair. But I can say it exists.

Having a black friend or black friends or having black family members or even having a black child or lover does not automatically remove you from being racist. It should make you more aware of racism in its everyday forms. But it does not exclude you from that moniker.

Even as I’m writing this, I know that my privilege allows me to be able to voice this opinion and for it to be at least heard, which is more than most black people can say.

All I’m asking is for the white people in this country to accept the fact that we live in a racist society.

The research is there. The statistics are there. Or you could even talk to your one black friend and ask him or her if racism still exists in this country.

Because it does exist. It’s in our schools. It’s in our justice system. It’s in the ivory towers and the streets of our suburbs.

And apparently it’s in our voting booths.

Religion can be spoken about freely, yet we tread softly when publically mentioning it.

But, the hardest idea to grasp is that having the right to spread religious awareness is certainly not the same as pushing beliefs on others.

While people reserve the right to practice religious freedom and to speak without restraint about any faith they choose, forcing others to listen isn’t freedom of speech; it’s harassment. 

There are over 127 major religions and seven billion people on earth with seven billion different views of God. Some love Him, some fear Him, some question His existence and some are still searching for Him.

Some will decide that God plays no role in the trials and tribulations of life, while others will find faith the moment they see their newborn child take the first breath of being.

Whether we discover where we spiritually belong in a pew on Sunday morning or on a lonely drive with no destination, the journey to finding or forgetting God is what determines our views. We can’t be told what and who to believe in, or to even believe in anything at all.

What we learn, who we meet and the challenges we face are what we remember when we stand before Him, not the church members that knock on our front doors, or the people that stand in the quad condemning us all to hell.

And if the church goer at your front door changes your perspective, let them. Be baptized in one church, change your mind, and be baptized in another. Let what you learned in biology class make you question evolution and the powers above.

Learning from life experiences and questioning God’s ways isn’t sin; it’s human. It’s human to change emotionally, mentally, and spiritually when physical surroundings change. It’s human to simply be curious and indecisive.

Faith only exists because there are people that believe strongly enough in it to make it a reality and a way of life. Without doubters and differences, the strength of religion would never have anything to be measured against.

Because of that, religion without true belief is weak.

Never practice out of habit, don’t follow just because your parents or friends do, and don’t ever think one religion is superior to another. In a time that seems to have the explanation for everything in a test tube or on a database, people believing in any God at all is a miracle in itself.