.@GretaThunberg is TIME's 2019 Person of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/YZ7U6Up76v pic.twitter.com/SWALBfeGl6

— TIME (@TIME) December 11, 2019

By now we’ve all heard the news about TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Unsurprisingly, they chose little Greta Thunberg, a child who has been used and exploited for the activist entertainment fetishes of adults. But hey, climate change and all that! The Cult of Climate is actively accepting child sacrifices.

We shouldn’t have expected anything less. TIME has gone from being an influential magazine of record to a nonstop peddler of Trump Derangement Syndrome – pretty much the same as every one of their peers in the left-wing publication business. We can no longer count on them to take the business of news seriously. At this point, TIME – much like The New York Times – is being run by exhausted boomers and spoiled millennials. Anyone with good judgment and a matured sense of fair play has been long ago run out, or simply given up their spot to the mob.

The “Person of the Year” brand belongs to TIME, but the sentiment does not. They don’t get to decide for the rest of us who is worthy of recognition. In fact, their lame annual exercise only serves to remind me why they are so angry and bitter about our current president…they have been and remain woefully out of touch with the temperature and will of the American people. At RedState, we work hard to bring you stories we think you’ll appreciate; stories we think speak to you and your way of life. At RedState, we haven’t forgotten that our country is a patchwork of ideas and ideals, despite what the media hubs in Los Angeles and New York City try to shove down our throats ever day.

In that spirit, we are declaring our own “PERSON OF THE YEAR”…and it’s you, the American Voters.

The left-wing media has done everything over the last few years to pretend you don’t exist. To them your very existence in this country is a mistake, one that they have intended to correct since election night 2016. The truth is that the American Voters are the most important persons in the world. Even when the will of the voters doesn’t go “our” way or “your” way, the fact of the matter is that whatever decision they make has an effect on the entire world. We hold the global future in our hands every election cycle.

Talk about influential.

We may hoot and holler at each other over who deserves to hold the highest office, but at the end of the day we choose that person with our votes. And no matter how contentious a presidency gets, we do the same thing every four years. It is a testament to the passion of the American voter and unique efficacy of our republic. Just take a moment to think of how many elections we’ve been through, how many presidents, how much turmoil and how many triumphs. We have survived as a superpower and the beacon of freedom in this world precisely because you – the voters – continue to march to the ballot boxes and have your say.

I listen to a few British podcasts and consistently our friends in the U.K. chide Americans for our “mean” politics and our political scrapping. They see our constant arguing over policy issues as base. They don’t understand that what they are witnessing is not blind rage, but passion. A large portion of the U.K. electorate has simply given up on having their way. So now (with the exception of Brexit, which is still being adjudicated three years on) their elections boil down to who will manage the decline and for how long. We Americans have not yet given up.

Left, right, liberal, conservative – we fight so passionately because we feel so passionately. We have not yet ceded our ground, wherever that ground happens to be. It is a uniquely American trait and one that has made the world a better place. It was that same American spirit that refused to cede the ground to one of the most evil men the world has ever known, hence saving Europe and the fate of millions. I’ll take uncomfortable American political passion over European ennui any day of the week.

Our left-wing media would like to pretend that passion doesn’t exist…that you don’t exist. They truly believe that you don’t know what’s good for you. We hear it all this all the time: “Why do these people vote against their own self interests???” They don’t even know what your interests are, nor do they care to learn. But they sure as hell have opinions about them.

The left-wing in Congress has done the same to you, and much worse. They have tried to invalidate your very existence by invalidating your election results. They cannot conceive of the idea that they got it…got you…so completely, totally, pathetically wrong. These are the smartest people in the room. They’re supposed to tell you what to think, not the other way around. They hate you so much, and think you are so stupid that they are not even willing to let you make your own decision about Trump’s value as president in a mere 11 months. They don’t trust you. That’s all you need to know about the worthiness of TIME’s annual leftwing strokefest.

TIME and all the other legacy publications, alongside their compatriots in government have worked hard to erase your historic votes and your singular dominance as the most influential voters on the planet.

But we haven’t forgotten you, and we appreciate you. Not because of the party you vote for – goodness knows that it won’t be long before the American Voters choose someone we here at RedState don’t care for. Elections are cyclical. No, we appreciate you because you keep voting, you keep fighting, you keep showing up…and government goes to those who show up.

So here’s to you, The American Voter. You are our Redstate Person of the Year. Pour yourself a cold one, eat some grilled meat and watch some ridiculously overpaid athletes throw balls at each other. You’ve earned it.