Maybe the teabagger turnout was smaller in other parts of the country. But here, in a town of moderate size about twenty minutes from Nashville, it looked like the annual Fourth of July fireworks spectacle that tends to draw practically everybody. A significant portion of this town showed up to protest...something. Whole families were there. But then, whole families used to join the Klan around here, too.
I should not have been surprised, I suppose. This not a little hick town, though filled with hicks it may be. It has been and still is home to several famous country-music performers. We have two golf courses and one country club. We have a Sachs 5th Avenue. We have enormous 3-million-dollar mansions with swimming pools, tennis courts and indoor skating rinks. We have a frakkin marina, and the yachts that berth in them. It's a town where it's common to see bumper stickers that read "Mac & the Babe" and "Republicans: we work hard so you don't have to."
In other words, it's teeming with THEM. I swear, they are growing more hateful by the day. And it's not taxes that they're angry about; it's about something far more insidious.
Living here (in Tennessee: Buckle of the Bible Belt, home of the Klan) during the elections was stressful for a guy like me. I'm a Progressive. I believe that reason should trump emotion when it comes to politics. I believe in looking out for each other, not just for oneself. In the year leading up to the election, I often felt isolated--one tiny blue krill in a sea of huge red whales. The GOP Headquarters was right up my street; I had to drive past them every day on my way to work. And again on the way home. And more times if I had to go pretty much anywhere. Let's just say they had a large and vocal presence. And as election day drew nearer, they seemed to get nastier.
For a while, mine was the only car in town with an Obama sticker on it. I got the finger almost everywhere I went. One guy in a huge pickup actually tried to run me off the highway. And the venom from the other side wasn't even just directed at me. On Halloween, my 6-year-old daughter rang the doorbell of a house with a McCain sign in the yard. Instead of saying "Trick or Treat!" she said, "Why aren't you for Obama?" They refused to give her any candy and shut the door in her face.
This election, something was different. Something had changed. I sensed that those who surround me had begun to take things personally. This time it was about something other than politics, more than mere issues like taxes, abortion, gay marriage or teaching evolution in schools. This time, at least around here, it was mostly about voting against the black guy.
It shouldn't matter, but I'm not a black guy. What I am is a reasonable person. I didn't care that my candidate was a black guy: he had the best ideas, the right ideology; he was calm, rational, thoughtful, open-minded and not prone to outlandish hyperbole.
But the other side didn't see it that way. The opposition used his race against him, stirring up fear of a type this country hasn't seen since the 1950s. Looking back, it becomes clear: When they said he was a Muslim, what they really meant was "He's black." When they accused him of being a terrorist, what they really meant was "You can't trust him because he's black." When they called him a communist, a socialist and a fascist, what they really meant was "He's the opposite of everything we are...because he's black."
Sure, it was a shrewd political manouver. But it's had serious consequences. Racism in this country is not dead; far from it. The Republicans know it. The right-wing conservatives know it. And they intend to use it until they get what they want (which is, of course, whatever they want).
The right-wing bobbleheads did and ARE STILL using Obama's race in an attempt to turn things back in their direction. This behavior is despicable. (And then to insult our intelligence by putting a literal token in charge of their party; bitch, please!) Those who surround me are particularly susceptible to this kind of rhetoric. They are Southerners, after all.
Anyway, in November Obama won. Like so many others, I was elated. I realized that I was not alone--for most of the country had agreed with me. For me, it wasn't particularly important that we had elected a black guy. What was important to me was that we had elected the RIGHT PERSON. I naively expected that the country would move forward with our new President and chart a new course into a brighter future.
That's me: silly idealistic Progressive.
That didn't mean I was stupid. I knew that those who surround me would taste bitter disappointment, just as I had felt it in 2004. I knew they would whine and complain and quibble over every miniscule misstep Obama might possibly make. That's punditry, after all.
But I never expected what I saw Wednesday night. Half the town had shown up (clogging the main artery, through which I had to travel, or else I wouldn't have been anywhere near the place) ostensibly to decry the taxes, the politicians, the politics. But I could tell by the looks of the crowd and the signs they were waving that it wasn't about that stuff at all. The protest I saw was largely METAPHORICAL.
I saw a sea of white folks. Mostly wealthy white folks. Holding signs that regurgitated old campaign and Fox "news" talking points--talking points that contained within them the same subtle implications I mentioned above. I turned on the news and saw the same things elsewhere: throngs of white people holding signs with Obama-as-Hitler, Obama-as-Marx, Obama-as-Muslim. In other words, Obama-the-Other; Obama-the-Black-Guy. The teabaggers KNOW that most of them are getting a tax break. THEY DON'T CARE. They probably know that our President is not a socialist, or a fascist, or a Muslim, or a terrorist, or any of those things. And again, THEY DON'T CARE. What bothers them the most is as clear as the nose on your face. What bothers them the most is that a black guy is President.
Whatever they may claim, it has now become obvious that this is still about racism. I challenge anyone to demonstrate otherwise. And I fear for my country. In November, I truly believed that our nation had, for the most part, gotten past this nonsense. An overwhelming majority had voted for the best person; the color of his skin ultimately didn't matter. What I saw Wednesday night, in this town full of selfish, stuck-up, racist, closed-minded people, indicated otherwise.
And I blame the Republicans, the right-wingers and the TV blowhards for stirring up this hornets' nest. For driving our nation backwards in an attempt to move themselves forward. God forbid they argue over differences of opinion or have an honest debate about policy. Instead they appeal to those who SHOULD be marginalized: the racists, the paranoids, the aluminum-foil-hat-wearing conspiracy nutjobs.
We must stand up to these people and put an end to the racist rhetoric. We must insist that we will no longer tolerate intolerance. Perhaps we should hold our own Liberal-Progressive demonstration, show them that there ARE more of US than there are of THEM. Show them what a grass-roots movement really is--AGAIN! Thousands strong, we can yell at the tops of our lungs, "SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Then maybe, finally, they will.