by John Cole, Scranton Times Tribune.Today in Washington DC, on the Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where 47 years ago the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous speech, I have a dream, what is being described in European news broadcast as extreme right wing activist who wish for a White Christian America and a whiter White House gathered to protest and listen to speeches.
Fascist leaders 70 years ago made similar speeches in Europe, offering simple solutions to anyone and everyone's problems or perceived problems, always invoking tyranny of Government, freedom and liberty under siege, endangered birth rights. In the USA the Religious Right wing which forms a good 40% of the Republican Party, if not more and the new extremists the Tea Party are the same people who in the past have been against desegregation of schools in the USA, voter registration for blacks, against the abolition of the death penalty, abortions, women's rights, sex education in schools, against all who are not white nor Christians, against other religions, Gay rights, in other words against the advancement of society in general because it attacks, according to them, their rights as White Christians to dominate the political agenda in the USA and control all leavers of society.
It is strange to see a country which loves to tell everyone that it is the land of the Free and the home of the Brave holding such a rally. The message here being delivered by persons like Beck and Palin is simple, we want to deny basic citizens rights to other American citizens we do not like and who in our minds offend us. Beck and Palin and others are not Civil Rights activists and did nothing now or back then, if they were alive in the 1950's and 1960's to support such rights. The extremist Republicans, Abraham Lincoln aside, are not in favor of Civil Rights. Unfortunately the level headed and moderate Republicans are swept aside here as the latest primary results showed.
How can this be in a democracy that one part of the citizens can deny other citizens their rights as citizens. It is not about controlling government excess or stopping tyranny. You have a freely elected Congress and Senate representing the people, that's their job. The extremists would like to deny basic health care to other citizens because they are unable to afford decent care, or deny some citizens the right to marry because the extremists have a fantasy view of marriage inherited from the Victorian era, or deny due process to people who entered the USA without legal means and the list goes on.
To me this is nothing more than the Klu Klux Klan modern version minus the bed sheets. All this opposition to President Obama is simply because he is not white, racism is well and alive in the USA and embraced by scores of White Christian Americans as a virtue.
The debate about the Islamic cultural centre in Manhattan near ground zero is based on ignorance, racism and hate. What if a Mosque is built on ground zero incorporated into the design of the new Freedom tower, it is a place of worship, of prayer to God, the same God of the Old Testament. You do have freedom of religion in the USA, not just freedom to worship Christian values, which by the way are the same as Jewish and Muslim values, as anyone who studied these 3 religions know. No it seems that the White Christians, politicians and commentators on FOX and in other media outlet feel it is OK to vent their ignorance in public if it brings in notoriety, votes, etc...
In the end it is very dangerous for the USA as a democracy and a society, a country deeply in debt to the People's Republic of China, a country which has lost much of its prestige by loosing both in Iraq and now in Afghanistan, a great power on the decline with many of its citizens unable to face reality and what is happening within their own borders.
It is all very sad to see, I only wish that reason prevail in the end, but that is probably wishing for too much.
Hi Larry, I am here in the US, came across your blog while surfing and added it to my feed. You bring up some interesting points about the Beck rally. Here are my thoughts, for what they are worth:
ReplyDeleteGlen Beck has said some objectionable things but, like so many public figures, his opponents exaggerate who he is. I am a person of color with many ties to the queer community, married to an immigrant, father to a daughter who's also a person of color, and serving in the Army with lots of other Baptists, so I am around the most right-wing people in America. I can assure you, I'm not worried. There is no KKK at the Beck rallies and tea parties are not hotbeds of racism. It's not that extreme.
I don't go to tea party rallies, partly because I can't as a soldier, and partly because I don't want to. But I know many people who go to them and they're not that severe. A lot of hype is being whipped up by people who want to make money on your outrage and fear, similar to the way people made money on fear of Muslims, Latinos, gays, or what have you, in the past. The Communist menace gets moved around and translated into new forms, but it's the same basic fictional bogeyman. Like the WIllie Horton figures of old, the KKK-led tea party extremist does not exist; he's a figment of Rachel Maddow's imagination to make money off you.
Most of the people who watch Glen Beck are furious at both parties and feel left behind because the economy is doing so badly. When Obama got into office he had sky-high approval ratings and the vast majority of the country wanted to give him a chance. Now lots of people from all sides feel betrayed because they are realizing that much of what he promised was impossible to deliver. In America many of us -- including me -- are no longer interested in hearing that it is all Bush's fault or refrains of what the Democrats inherited from "eight years" of this or that. We can only be fed talking points for so long before we start to realize that (1) problems this big don't all happen in 8 years under one party, (2) there were no 8 years under 1 party, since many Democrats including Obama were in Congress and contributed to the problem, (3) politicians lie no matter which party they are, and unfortunately the Democrats, who control all of Congress, are the ones with their pants on fire since the Republicans have no hands on the rudder.
It's not racial. It's frustration. Unfortunately people who hated Bush with a passion have to reap what they sow, I hate to say it but it's true. If you engage in incessant sarcasm and demonize a president and hold completely insulting rallies full of wild conspiracy theories and Republicans burned in effigies and compared to Hitler, and then you win the whole government thereby proving that hysteria and mob outrage can win people things, then you are going to have to put up with the other side doing the same thing. You don't get to own the Lincoln Memorial and you can't say it's racism. Lincoln was a Republican and nobody complained at all the rallies during the 2000s when people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial denouncing Republicans. We can't own icons.
Just some friendly thoughts since you sound like you're very upset and I figured I could offer a calming counterpoint. Blessings, ROL
R.O. thank you for your comment, I write from afar and am not an American citz though I have members of my family who are. From outside the USA, the picture on the news is not flattering. It is not the USA I remember as a child, everything appears more extreme now, maybe because of the decline of the USA and the general frustration amongst Americans. I know what you mean when you say that Bush did not create all the problems of today, no one president can do that, not in your system with Congress and the Senate as checks. But I can't help feel that Obama being black does not help this picture.
ReplyDeleteThere are many people in the US who are racist, and who probably let their racial prejudice turn them against Obama. But the numbers seem to point to things other than race, in terms of people's most pressing concerns. Obama won with a higher margin victory (53%) than Bush, Clinton, or Carter. Anyway our economic problems are so severe that racism is a minor distraction at this point. The media pundits like Keith Olbermann who keep bringing up racism are, I think, looking for some way to pass time without having to explain why the economy is so bad. It would be like everyone worrying that Berlusoconi was disliked because of his age, and talking about that all day instead of the decisions he made in government.
ReplyDeleteAtthe very least, I'd have thought, the outcry by Palin and co over the Islamic cultural centre (NOT mosque, though it will have a prayer room) near (not AT) the site of Ground Zero will certainly be playing into the hands of AlQaeda. Let's face it, Sarah is unfortunately a very real threat, and the very real harm Dubbya unleashed could become a tornado in her hands.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm with Laurent 100 per cent on this.
To be truthful, I am in the military and people I work with have had to fight al-qaeda. They will tell you, none of this debate will have any effect on whether we win or lose the war on terror. The debate's about us and our hang-ups. Sarah Palin's no more a threat than Obama is secretly Muslim or Hillary Clinton is secretly forming a lesbian mafia, all myths that people have whipped up, to win elections so they can get their hands on taxpayers' money. The rally in Washington came and went and black people are still the same as they were last week. They'll be the same way next year. In fact, they're in the same position they were in two years ago, before there was a black president. Which goes to show you how often we get ahead of ourselves in these debates without figuring out what any of it all really means in our lives.
ReplyDeleteBlessings! Sorry to switch identities but my computer is acting up. As Coco Rico I blog on many of these issues.
ok I thought R.O.Lopez and Coco Rico looked familiar. So this is your new blog then. Great.
ReplyDeleteYes the USA is a complex country. I like your new blog and new image.
David, I believe that in any democracy, the real danger is the ignorance of the electorate. It's true of any country, if the electors do not educate themselves, we are in for a lot of surprises.
ReplyDeleteAnd playing on fear and ignorance, which a very large proportion of the American people has/have in bucketloads. Between the ears of either coast, there's not much going on...
ReplyDeleteI don't see reason winning at all. This is a time of paranoia and projection and witch hunting; people want black and white 'truths'
ReplyDelete