It was the '80s at WJZ-TV, an ABC affiliate television station in Baltimore, MD.  I was a rare black graphic designer in the art department.  Oprah Winfrey was the co-host of the station's local morning talk show, People Are Talking.

People Are Talking associate producer Debbie DiMaio sent her "reel" to Chicago in response to a job opening.  The folks in Chicago saw Oprah on Debbie's reel, liked her, and the rest is television history.

Little did I know that my coworker would eventually "Oprah-ize" America, making everything about feelings and self-esteem.  Please do not get me wrong -- I am not saying that Oprah is solely responsible for feminizing our culture and banning score-keeping at school sporting events for fear of injuring the losing team's self-esteem.  But Oprah is unquestionably a superstar on the liberal socialist-progressive team committed to furthering their "brain dead" all-about-feelings agenda.

My brother has been coaching little league football for over 25 years.  He has noticed a disturbing shift in the attitudes of more and more kids.  They think they are entitled, demanding maximum rewards for minimal effort.

Contributing greatly to America's new "gimme" mindset is President Obama, preaching his gospel of "spreading the wealth around," confirming blacks as victims of racial inequality, promoting entitlements, and demonizing achievers.

And when did a belief and faith in God become a bad thing in America?  God is so banned from the public square that any politician boldly proclaiming his or her faith is branded a religious zealot nutcase by the liberal media.  Meanwhile, the liberal media considers anything less than a celebration of sodomy ignorant and worthy of attack for bigotry.  Now, I preface my next comment by saying that I have homosexual family and friends whom I love dearly. But I will not be bullied into proclaiming their behavior normal.

Founding father John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people."  And yet, the left seeks to ban all references to God from government.

Surfing the channels, I stumbled across a TV program titled Hip Hop's Most Shocking Moments.  It was unfortunate to witness so many youths influenced by a culture which celebrates ignorance, crudeness, and guys employing a duck-waddling walk to keep their pants, which are already below their butts, from falling all the way down.  The liberal media celebrates this behavior as authentic "blackness."  Conservative, educated, English-speaking blacks are trashed for trying to act white.

The liberal media and the left also appear to hate any suggestion of standards, character, and honor.  In their perverted thinking, unless you can walk the walk of Jesus Christ, you have no right to expect a standard of behavior from anyone.  Thus, any conservative Republican misstep is heralded by the left as punishment for daring to raise a standard in the first place.

Democrat sins are celebrated as resume enhancements; they portray Democrats as flawed and "real" like the rest of us.

Brother and sister patriots, I believe that it is crucial that we make an immediate U-turn from the direction our country is going.  We need to get back to standing up for standards, character, and honor.

When selecting our presidential candidate, I believe that the C-word, character, means everything!  Presidents have an abundance of advisors and fact-finders to educate and brief them on any issue.  Only a president of character with faith in a power greater than him- or herself will make decisions based on what is best for the American people rather than what is going to win the most votes.

The bottom line is that we Tea Party patriots must take our country back -- back from politicians who demonize achievers, back from politicians who promote entitlement to enslave as many voters to government as possible, back from bottom-feeding parasites seeking freebies from Obama's stash, back from those who hate moral standards of any kind, back from those who hate our military, back from those who seek to divide us along racial lines for political gain, back from those who celebrate and sympathize with the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11.

And most of all, we must take our country back from Obama, who, upon entering the White House, toured the world apologizing for America's greatness and has since vowed to "fundamentally transform" her.  You, Sir, are unworthy of our extraordinary legacy.  And with God's help, we will take our country back from you come November 2012.

Lloyd Marcus, proud unhyphenated American, is the chairman of The Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama.  Please help him spread his message by joining his Liberty Network.  Lloyd is singer/songwriter of the American Tea Party Anthem and author of Confessions of a Black Conservative, foreword by Michele Malkin.  LloydMarcus.com