Sometimes it’s nice for cynics like me who can always find something to criticize to take the time to express true gratitude for the things we really do love about living in America. On this Thanksgiving Day, here’s my list:

I’m thankful Mitt Romney will not be the president of the United States, and will not be appointing retrograde Supreme Court justices.

I’m especially thankful that a man with less experience in the private sector than a
Soviet baker, Paul Ryan, will not be outlining fiscal policy from the executive branch.

I’m thankful for the cease-fire in Gaza and the work of President Obama and Secy. Clinton in achieving it.

I’m thankful for the fact that while many countries soft-pedal dessert to the tune of fruit plates and such, we eat fat wedges of pie as wide as a lampshade covered in boulders of ice cream.

I’m thankful that, as the grandson of Holocaust survivors, I live in a country where I can legally own a copy of Mein Kampf and debate a denier and win on the facts rather than have his unpopular and incorrect opinion censored.

I’m thankful for yoga pants and jeans with riding boots.

I’m thankful California voters narrowly chose an incomplete plan to fund education, and that teachers, parents and students can have a less stressful holiday break.

I’m thankful that we’re building cars in Detroit and Youngstown and driving them on Mars.

I’m thankful for the remarkable shift in popular support and the mechanisms of our legislative processes that have pretty much entrenched same-sex marriage as a right in this country, and I’m especially thankful for our troops not being forced to separate fighting for the country they love from fighting for the person they love.

I’m thankful for a federal system that gives states the freedom and liberty to experiment with something like marijuana legalization, and I’m hopeful about the silence I’ve heard from D.C. on interfering against the will of Colorado and Washington voters.

I’m thankful for Tom Tancredo, a man I profoundly disagree with on almost everything, penning this op-ed and reminding us all why we should never completely write any person off, because there are pearls of wisdom deep inside the crustiest of shells. It warms my heart thinking of Tancredo’s theoretical liberal grandson, who has been busting grandpa’s balls about immigration and gay marriage at the Thanksgiving table for years, finding an unlikely ally when legalization comes up tonight.

I’m thankful for the quality of sleep that the Second Amendment allows me to have in my home.

I’m thankful for a country that empowers women to make their own sexual choices, rather than have their fathers and uncles do the deciding for them. I am proud of an America that accepts unplanned hook-ups and Planned Parenthood.

I’m thankful for action-hero elected officials like Chris Christie and Cory Booker, who may not see eye-to-eye on taxes or nutrition, but at a time of crisis, they were on the scene to get “stuff” done.

I’m thankful for a military that can launch B-2 stealth bombers directly to Afghanistan from Missouri.

I’m thankful for the fact that although the Jews have a 100 percent success rate with getting kicked out of every country we’ve ever lived in, it’s never going to happen here.

I’m thankful for a society where strangers can look each other in the eye, smile, and say hello without being considered creepy. European tourists who are amazed by the friendliness of average Americans have it wrong: It’s not that we’re so nice, it’s just that Swedes need to lighten up.

I’m thankful for Megyn Kelly asking Karl Rove “is this just math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?”

I’m thankful for the fact that while the “civilized” countries of Western Europe try to put band-aids on their failures to integrate immigrants with things like burqa bans, despite all our flaws, America has elected a president named Barack Hussein Obama (and soon enough, one named something like Marco Rubio or Julian Castro), and that even the most religiously intolerant among us would not go for a law allowing the government to regulate what kind of hat someone can wear. Individual freedoms are too important here.

I’m thankful for pulled pork and fried chicken, and the bounty of physical fitness options in beautiful and vain Los Angeles that makes me feel less guilty about eating them.

Most of all, I’m thankful for being fortunate enough to be born in a country where the president can stand in front of the U.N. and say “I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so.” As long as the president of the United States lives by this principle, our arguments will be sufficiently heated and our democracy will be just fine.

Happy Thanksgiving, and please engage in activities the Romneys would not approve of.

Reach Editor-at-Large Matt Pressberg here.