In politics I have learned that it is not what is heard, but what is not heard that is important. Lately, the silence has been quite loud from the right, even though the spectacle is still there. When Allan West gets up and calls 78-81 of his colleagues Communists, or Ted Nugent latest diatribe trying to stating that he is being treated like a “Black Jew at a Nazi-Klan Rally” because he is not afraid to tell the truth about Deborah Wasserman Schultz and Nancy Pelosi by referring to them as “Varmint”, to the birther issue, and Rush Limbaugh’s need to call a woman who he disagrees with a “Slut, or a Prostitute” it’s not what is said on the right that scares me; it is what they are afraid to say.
The cowardice of Conservatives to stand up for the values they claim to support in the face of the fear and loathing spectacle is as thunderous as the inability of liberals to defend ourselves. Where is the outrage from Conservatives, where is the outrage that these are our fellow citizens, these are mothers, and these are human beings? Somewhere Conservatives seem to have decided that we have to paint anyone who will not subscribe to their vision of America as not only having a difference of opinion, but being un-American.
I am at a loss to see what values exist in trying to turn American against American, this us vs. them struggle where the difference in people trump all else. It’s all about the them issues, the assassination of character and the sheer lack of character from those who are in leadership positions.
While, I do seem to lay a majority of blame on Conservatives to the current discourse we see, I will not hold Liberals blameless. Liberals are afraid to offend, afraid to show emotion; afraid to stand up to the barrage because they think reason will prevail. In my opinion, it is about time that reason dictates we stand up to the injustice in the rhetoric.
I mean seriously, who takes Allan West’s red menace, Ted Nugents tirade on how he is voice of the terrified and oppressed in the face of the liberal varmint or the need of so many to view the President as one of them not one of us as useful political discourse. he lack of the “We disagree with their vision, but they are as American as we are” in our political discourse is what makes me wonder if there is hope for America, not whether we can come together on the important issues. Because if we can’t even view each other as fellow Americans, what is there to gain.