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President Barack Obama quite rightly said he did not really deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Quite wrongly, he said the entire United States deserved it.

If you listened carefully to the Nobel Committee's explanation, they clearly recognized and applauded the fundamental change represented by Obama's election.

But Obama did not elect his own administration. Nor did the entire United States of America. What corrected the course of this country were the votes of more than 69 million of us who demanded change - and I was one of them.

That made his successes the nation's successes. His honors were the nation's honors. The opposition remained loyal and deserved a share of those successes and those honors.

But we no longer live in innocent times.

The Bush administration turned government into a right wing religious crusade, and only rabid neo-cons and their Christian fellow travelers need apply for positions on the front lines. They declared their political opponents at home to be enemies; they gave other nations the choice of joining the crusade - or becoming targets of it.

The Republican Party shed the lingering remnants of its Main Street conservativism in favor of right-wing fervor, anti-intellectualism and willful ignorance.

Last November, more than 69 million people delivered a punishing verdict on the direction of the nation and the Republicans. We elected not only Obama, but delivered a Congress with a wide Democratic majority in the House and 60 Democratic votes in the Senate.

We won - but there was no honeymoon. No loyal opposition. No standing aside for the majority's agenda. Instead, the losers declared permanent political war on their own government.

Obama received not loyalty, but an unrelenting onslaught of vitriol from intransigent reactionaries and hate spewers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Dick Cheney.

Tea baggers and gun nuts rallied because, "We want our America back," as one tearful white woman declared at a town hall forum.

So this time, Mr. President, I don't think we have to share the Nobel Peace Prize with the whole country. Too many troglodytes continue to fight tooth and nail to undermine exactly what the Nobel Committee was attempting to foster. And to undermine your government - and our government.

Instead, let's divide the prize among the people who really deserve it - the 69 million plus voters who changed the course of this nation for the better, with no help from the other side, before, during or after.

I'd like my tiny piece of the plaque mounted on a nice red, white and blue background, if you don't mind. You can spend the money on health care.

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