So it’s Labor Day and due to a change in my relationship status, I had some free time. Initially I tried to be productive by getting reacquainted with my medicine ball and push-up routine. Now that my abs feel like they have been tied in knots, I decided to watch some West Wing and catch up on international news. I have quite a bit of international experience and training which plays into my current job, but I keep coming back to the trends and views that have seemed to become a normal part of the U.S. political discourse. I am of course talking about equality: racial, gender, sexual, or otherwise.
This is simply me asking questions and voicing opinion; if you are expecting some major revelation or policy suggestion, you should stop reading. I will save you time and say equality to me is just that-all are equal. While I view all as equal, that does not mean I believe the state should treat all people as equally abled. All are equal, yet all do not have the same abilities in my opinion. The solution and discussion on that is for another entry.
Cross posted at my blog.
The headlines and stories that drew me back to the U.S. outlets and reporting revolve around the all too familiar discussions of the racist Tea Party meme or anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has become so common among our daily lives it is almost routine. I say almost routine because whenever I see one I still get a little wound up, because I can typically trace the argument back to its origins and debunk it in the span of about three to five minutes. Why is this skill so unusual? Is it because I try to have highly developed critical thinking skills? Is it because I try to remain optimistic about people and learned long ago about the folly of assuming the truth in stereotypes? Is it because I read Daily Kos and its band of excellent thinkers on a regular basis?
I was raised in a Christian family on the West Coast. I went to a school where there was actual diversity for a time, until the next trendy white school was built for the new gated community. I had the obligatory gay uncle during the 90’s. I was raised on a shoestring budget until I was 16, when my parents finally paid off their student loans and came into money. Somehow I came out of that background knowing that no one deserves to be discriminated against. Gays are regular people wanting to live a life, an ordinary life. There was no difference from a family dinner in my house than one at my friends the Gongs, the Rubios, or any other family. How are these observation lessons lost on tens of thousands at Fox sponsored rallies of delusion? At what point in their lives did they say, “It is fine to hate or dislike a people based on their beliefs or skin color?” I know that I may be gullible, but the process of hate based on a trait completely eludes me. My worry is that I may be in the minority on this.
By now there are more than enough examples of Tea Party racism out there to try and argue that the movement is anything but the white middle class being gamed by the old white republican establishment, terrified of change and progress. So what else is new? What seems new to me is the trend that Democrats have allowed to happen. Why are we not calling both Republicans and the Tea Party out on these connections, that they are one and the same? Why are we not slamming the republicans in general for allowing the Tea Party to vomit forth the ignorant racist homophobia that the Republicans have believed and practiced silently for years? Why are we not making a coordinated effort to tie them to their hatred of the first amendment, with specific examples? God knows there are enough examples of them to fill every major media market in America for at least twelve solid hours at a time. We must make them own it!
When we examine the issue of their religious bias and hatred the problem gets worse, Gov. Dean’s response not withstanding. However, this only clarifies the solution: The first amendment allows for the free expression of opinion. That is the line. You don’t have to like what the other person says, but you don’t get to shut them up and bring in legislation against them based on religion, race, sex, or anything else. Why are we even coming close to ceding ground on this issue? Where is the downside in saying, “Those guys on that side of the aisle want to oppress these people because they can’t read a 2,000 year-old religious document correctly, and they flat don’t care about this 230 year-old parchment that we built our country around?”
A quick sweep of the political landscape allows me to easily say the Republicans and Tea Party are against blacks, latinos, the poor, the sick, all those that don’t practice Christianity, and the elderly who collect social security and medicare. Does anyone actually think vigorously defending these populations and programs is a losing battle? In defending these populations, do we actually stand a chance of losing votes for fully embracing diversity? Politics aside, why would we not defend and go to mattresses for the equality of all American citizens?
In considering the causes of some of the greatest conflicts in history, I have often wondered if the opposing side made arguments to the effect of the questions I asked above. I am sure they did to some degree at the time, but they lost the argument and then the battle. Small conciliation to the Jews or those that disappeared under Pinochet. I see this not so ancient history, couple it with a movie like V for Vendetta, and I see something highly plausible. Having secret prisons in Poland is not so far removed from having them here in America.
A majority of Tea Party candidates have come out against Social Security, against Muslim’s freedom to build a mosque, against giving homosexuals full and equal rights, and against an illegal immigrant problem that does not exist in the scale they claim it does. Leaving aside the inherent stupidity and irresponsibility of enacting what they propose, the voiced desire to press legislation against entire classes of people should be sufficient for Democrats, liberals, and progressives to should with one voice, “Enough!”
If we don’t stand for the tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to be free, who will? If we don’t speak truth to ignorance and fight for all in this country, who will?
If we don’t say hatred of people in our country is wrong and the party and people who voice it will not wield power or influence, who will?
We are right in our convictions but our weak willed party and fear of polls will send us down a path towards oppression and destruction. Oppression that will be permissible by law.
-SR