Growing up during the 1960’s, I was bombarded with changes in the way American young people responded to authority. Many young people were dying in a far off place, in a war that had no moral intent other than to stop the spread of Communism. Young people burned draft cards and moved to Canada in defiance or took to the streets in protest. Some more radical young folks bombed buildings being used for creating weaponry. Young blacks, the majority of those going to and dying in Viet Nam embraced their ethnic culture as a way to get ‘in the face’ of authority.
I remember older people shaking their heads in disbelief or commenting that the young people were being disrespectful or worse (in their words), that they were Commie sympathizers. It was a time of great cultural upheaval. I saw riots in large cities, urban centers burned in protest by people angry with anything from supposed intolerance to the murder of icons. Even at the age of 14, I understood it was a time of social awakening for America.
Fast forward to 2008. Barrack Obama wins the presidency! I remember, foolishly, thinking how far America had come. How naïve could I have been? Although I was born and raised a proud Southerner, I failed to realize just how different I am from many of my neighbors who look like me. I never really ‘got’ that what I saw as social maturity was, in fact, a mask hiding a seething racial hatred I still do not understand.
I’m not sure where the Democrats were in 2009 when Karl Rove announced that the Republicans were going to take back Congress in the state houses across the nation. But by 2012, that is exactly what they had done, much to the detriment of democracy. Billions of dollars were spent in specific states to get rid of moderate state legislators to be replaced by hard-liners, who would be intolerant, obstructive and carry out their mission to re-draw legislative boundaries to ensure Republican representatives in Congress from as many states as possible.
They were so successful in fact, that in some states (Pennsylvania comes to mind) that Democratic votes far outnumbered Republicans votes in the federal elections, yet the districts were drawn in such a way that every district but one was won by a Republican. That one district contained most of the Democratic voters in the state.
I am neither Democrat nor Republican, although I lean more left of center on most issues.
I have very strong opinions and can be down-right pig-headed. HOWEVER, I am all about working together for the greater good. After the 2010 elections that shifted power to Republicans on Capitol Hill, the only people left working together are the ones who have been there the longest; and they are the ones being targeted in elections each year with more outside money to keep the power of disruption in check. Don’t believe me? Look at the last re-election campaign of Mississippi’s Thad Cochran. I am not a great fan of his politics, but Cochran has one of the best constituent advocacy offices of any congressman anywhere. He has never forgotten who elected him, who he represents, or where he is from. Yet, millions of outside dollars were spent to try to unseat him. He was portrayed as a Washington insider who has lost touch with Mississippi values. As I stated above, nothing could be farther from the truth! His real sin is that he consistently reaches across the Senate floor to create bipartisan legislation to get things done and bring money to the state of Mississippi.
These hard-liners, paid for by tea party advocates, created tactics that led to government shutdowns, threats of shutdowns, and a general disruption toward moving forward.
Now we have a new administration the likes of which history has seen before, in Nazi Germany. Any student of history can see the tactics being used by the crafters of the nationalist handbook for this administration are chillingly similar to Hitler’s tactics in 1930’s Germany.
This brings my rant full circle. During the presidential campaign, my naiveté began to wear thin as I saw time and again, mostly white Americans’ angry faces screaming at non-whites to ‘go back where they came from’, or calling them terrorists, rag-heads, or whatever racist moniker fitted them in the white Americans’ minds. While the new administration lumps all immigrants into the scary threat to our country, mostly it targets Muslims from specific countries. NOT the Muslim-heavy countries with which the president is doing business, like India.
The racism is getting worse daily, because the people who were hiding behind their pulpits or front pews in church are now emboldened by a fear-mongering asshole in the White House.
Now I’m the older person shaking their head wondering ‘what the hell are people thinking’.
Every one of us needs to take a close look in the mirror! Unless you are full-blood Native American, your presence in this country is because you or your ancestor was an immigrant! Take a real close look. Because a LOT of people who think they are white, are in fact, probably a combination of a lot of backgrounds that may or may not be European Christians at all. I guess the racists are self-hating people too afraid to embrace their backgrounds, sort of like the idiot residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Whose country is this anyway? It’s all of ours. No matter our color, ethnicity, religion or origin. That was what my family came here for in the 1700’s; it’s what they fought for in the American Revolution, and it’s what I believe today.
Our Country ‘Tis of Thee
kathryndstokes 