This hit me like a bomb.
It’s not that it’s huge news that Rep Steve King (R-Iowa) is a rabid racist. And, I’m not even sure if this is his worst statement ever, likely not, but it’s got to be up there. But, part of why it hit me is that just today, I really “felt” some pride in this nation, and that’s not all that normal, especially nowadays. During the crowd shots in the Army-Navy football game, I noticed how diverse the student bodies were, and thought “that’s why we will be ok.” (I am more than aware of ALL the problems our service academies have, in their treatment of women, the need for more diversity, etc. it was just a thought that occurred seeing the diversity that was present). I just enjoyed that moment.
But ...
We now have Congressmen approvingly re-tweeting fascist Hungarians, using language borne in alt-right-world-klan memes. www.huffingtonpost.com/…
From Huffpo:
Thomas Robb, current national director of the KKK, told Slate earlier this year that “diversity is not our strength. Diversity will kill us.”
I saw on Facebook today, an old “friend” (obviously not anymore) from H.S. write about how genius Trump is for making Jerusalem the new home of the U.S. Embassy in Israel. My “friend,” this jackass, lives in the middle of fking Idaho. I doubt he’s ever been to Europe, never mind Israel, and yet somehow he cares about where the damn U.S. Embassy is? Because he’s such a good friend of the Jews? Israel? I don’t think we had a single Jewish kid in our rural Idaho high school, I know we had no one from Israel. He’s happy because it infuriates Muslims. That’s. It. Purpose. Served.
This sort of racial shit-stirring just for the sake of proving you can do it is really starting to piss me off, and it’s really pissing me off just a day after I had a brief moment when I took a little pride in my country.
Can anyone here tell me that this tweet alone, given the statement itself and its roots, shouldn’t get calls for Steve King to resign shouting down from every direction? People are stepping down for acting out against women across a spectrum of disregard for women as possessing equal dignity. Why is hatred for other races and ethnicities somehow not every bit as hurtful to people psychologically, and physically?
I am just so sick of this shit. This country is heading in an extremely dangerous direction. When a dumbass nobody from Idaho pretends to care about where the U.S. embassy in Israel is, when the move does abso-fking-lutely nothing strategic AT ALL except prove that we will do something JUST to piss off Muslims, when the Repubs will support a child-molester over a Dem, when the President is a racist, serial-raping, friggin’ nut and U.S. Congressman can now openly re-tweet Hitler-Wannabe’s, new-age fascists from Europe borrowing on KKK memes “just to show they can”?
I really don’t know how we turn things around while avoiding some violent confrontation, here, at home. I really don’t.
***I wrote this in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, in large part bc of King’s comment. I appreciate the participation of all the commenters, because as I read it over this morning, to say it is “meandering” in its thesis and clarity would be “generous.” Link to my novels.