I remember my high school American History class, when we studied the terrible way ignorant white people treated Native Americans and Blacks—often separating children from their parents. A common white excuse at the time was, “It’s for the best. They don’t love their children the same way we do.”
Many years into the future, American History classes are going to look back at the 2014 election and see that huge numbers of white people voted for fear-based non-issues—like keeping their guns and fighting Ebola and ISIS in America—all while not giving a hoot that they were voting for the sworn enemies of public education and the environment.
How could these white people not have known that the Republicans they were voting for were responsible for education cuts and student loan rate increases? How could they not have known that those same Republicans would rather give tax breaks to wealthy corporations than nutritional assistance to school children in need? How could they not have known that virtually every Republican they elected was a climate change denier—condemning their children to a future with increased water shortages, mega-storms, uncontrollable wildfires, species extinctions, and wars over resources?
As a white person myself, I’m disgusted. Someday American History students will look back at 2014 and think: “Those white people just didn’t love their children the same way we do now.”