The "'I thought of it first' garbage" is part of the U.S. Constitution, and if you don't agree with it, that's fine, but generally speaking reactionary and ince

The "'I thought of it first' garbage" is part of the U.S. Constitution, and if you don't agree with it, that's fine, but generally speaking reactionary and incendiary (and often libertarian) arguments like yours are part of the problem. Like it or not, the system is run by patent lawyers, both inside and outside of government, who are not receptive to that kind of language (e.g. "extort"). What they are responsive to is carefully constructed, specific reasons why the system needs to be improved. If you have any of those, I'd encourage you to file a public comment with USPTO, as I have repeatedly. Otherwise, yeah, in this case I thought of it first, and I filed a patent on it, and I added a number of important limitations, and it was granted.