When I opened up my L.A. Times this morning, I got progressively more stressed out with each turn of the page. Why? Let’s see if you can figure it out, starting with what these three Times headlines have in common:
Report finds increase in anti-Semitic incidents in California
Islamic group denounces planned Temecula mosque protest
L.A. union members, activists to caravan to Arizona to protest immigration law
What is happening to this country? The crescendoing hatred and fear has reached a boiling point. Everywhere you look there is a story about bigotry, racism, and anger. Every time you turn on the Tee Vee Machine, there is a screaming– as opposed to talking– head perpetuating this same anti-American screed in the name of patriotism. What a joke. What a very, very bad joke.
The panicky white crowds behind this thinking (or lack thereof) are irrationally terrified of diversity. They are terrified of becoming the minority. They are terrified of anyone who is different than themselves, and so they create anti-Semitic incidents, denounce mosques, protest immigration, and refer to their own president as an outsider.
President Obama, see, is one of “them”, not one of us. He’s “the other”. He was born somewhere else, not here in America. He’s different, not like you and me, not like real Americans. He, just as other African Americans and/or Hispanics/Muslims/Asians/Arabs/Latinos/You Name It, are coming for you! Watch out.
Prejudice is nothing new, but the unrestrained fervor, the very loud, very boisterous delivery of the racist message seems to be. The “N word” is no longer whispered, it’s displayed proudly on signs. Protests have morphed into “Negrophobic” rallies that welcome racists. Placards now feature despicably blatant slurs against the president of the United States, both in word and image. Congress members are openly disparaged, spat at, belittled.
When did “respect” become eclipsed by insolence? When did comity get replaced by hostility? When did it become acceptable– trendy!– to overtly threaten fellow citizens and elected officials, openly carry lethal weapons, catcall, and hiss hatred? When did mob rule become commonplace?
I’ll tell you when. During the 2008 election campaign. And specifically, during Sarah Palin’s rallies. I am not alone in noticing the timing, I’ve heard it over and over from pundit after pundit. Initially, I thought it was just me, but it wasn’t. Just click on the previous link for documentation.
And this unAmerican, unpatriotic behavior continues today. Including her “half white/half black” attempts to separate Obama from the rest of us along with her repeated violent insinuations.
To make things worse, Palin’s reverent home base, ClusterFox, has now fanned the flames with such regularity and so furiously, that they are nothing more than a groupie network who encourages their well-paid on-air hookers to incite their 98.62% of not-black viewers into an intolerant, agitated frenzy.
With each televised shrine to the Tea Baggers, with each contrived outburst of outrage, with each Breitbart inspired lie, they nudge their alarmed viewers into action.
The result, in a nutshell, is a series of three headlines that I copied to the top of this post. And soon, god forbid, something even worse, even deadly.
I’ve left out a lot of names and examples in this piece, but this is the (d)evolution– ironically dubbed “revolution” by the Tea Baggers– of American politics as I see it. This is the snapshot of our country that is developing too quickly for the reluctant news [sic] media to grapple with.
And this is the state of the nation that Progressives have to contend with stat, before the inmates take over the asylum.
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