HATING AMERICANS
Lost in the fact that much of the world today hates Americans, is the fact that Americans hate Americans. Throughout our short history we have always hated each other and continue to do so today.
The religiously persecuted left Europe to become religiously intolerant in the New World. Witches were burned. Native Americans were slaughtered. Blacks enslaved. Women marginalized. With brother fighting brother, the Civil War was the greatest example of Americans hating Americans, and of course, those divisions have never left us.
Our internal tribal warfare takes the form of political parties, and the party in power now carries the mantle of racism, sexism, and class warfare into the 21st century.
Bob Herbert, in his Op Ed piece in the Times today, reminds us that Ronald Reagan, not that long ago (in the late 60's), opposed both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. He affably packaged his bigotry as "state's rights," and every Republican leader since has worked to make bigotry respectable. The sanitized code words are all that remain ("forced" busing, tax cuts, among others). As Bob Herbert points out, they are economic terms, the byproduct of which hurts blacks more than whites.
The Southern strategy of the Republicans, to appeal to the dark forces of bigotry, was always veiled in the cry for "states rights." Under the banner of States Rights, Republicans, both moderate and conservative, could tap into the force field of Americans hating Americans.
Confederate flag-waving George Allen is only the latest Republican macaca and nigger-hating bigot (to use his terms), to come down the pike, and he's looking to a future in the White House. Willie Horton type race-baiting campaigns, and intimidation of black voters, as in Florida, will not be ending any time soon; at least as long as the Tom DeLay's among us garner any respectability.
The religiously intolerant have found their home in the Republican party, and Jerry Falwell said recently that if Hillary Clinton gets elected, only the devil himself could arouse more Conservative activism. Apparently God is vehemently against universal health care. You could just hear God saying, "Under no circumstances do I want those poor, sick babies getting health care."
Occasionally we take breaks from killing each other to go off and kill others, only to return to killing ourselves. American Apocalyptism within our "enlightened," privileged generation, is alive and well. As New York Magazine recently put it:
"I don't think our mood is only a consequence of 9/11 (and the grim Middle East), or climate-change science, or Christians’ displaced fear of science and social change. It’s also a function of the baby-boomers’ becoming elderly. For half a century, they have dominated the culture, and now, as they enter the glide path to death, I think their generational solipsism unconsciously extrapolates approaching personal doom: When I go, everything goes with me, my end will be the end."
Lost in the fact that much of the world today hates Americans, is the fact that Americans hate Americans. Throughout our short history we have always hated each other and continue to do so today.
The religiously persecuted left Europe to become religiously intolerant in the New World. Witches were burned. Native Americans were slaughtered. Blacks enslaved. Women marginalized. With brother fighting brother, the Civil War was the greatest example of Americans hating Americans, and of course, those divisions have never left us.
Our internal tribal warfare takes the form of political parties, and the party in power now carries the mantle of racism, sexism, and class warfare into the 21st century.
Bob Herbert, in his Op Ed piece in the Times today, reminds us that Ronald Reagan, not that long ago (in the late 60's), opposed both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. He affably packaged his bigotry as "state's rights," and every Republican leader since has worked to make bigotry respectable. The sanitized code words are all that remain ("forced" busing, tax cuts, among others). As Bob Herbert points out, they are economic terms, the byproduct of which hurts blacks more than whites.
The Southern strategy of the Republicans, to appeal to the dark forces of bigotry, was always veiled in the cry for "states rights." Under the banner of States Rights, Republicans, both moderate and conservative, could tap into the force field of Americans hating Americans.
Confederate flag-waving George Allen is only the latest Republican macaca and nigger-hating bigot (to use his terms), to come down the pike, and he's looking to a future in the White House. Willie Horton type race-baiting campaigns, and intimidation of black voters, as in Florida, will not be ending any time soon; at least as long as the Tom DeLay's among us garner any respectability.
The religiously intolerant have found their home in the Republican party, and Jerry Falwell said recently that if Hillary Clinton gets elected, only the devil himself could arouse more Conservative activism. Apparently God is vehemently against universal health care. You could just hear God saying, "Under no circumstances do I want those poor, sick babies getting health care."
Occasionally we take breaks from killing each other to go off and kill others, only to return to killing ourselves. American Apocalyptism within our "enlightened," privileged generation, is alive and well. As New York Magazine recently put it:
"I don't think our mood is only a consequence of 9/11 (and the grim Middle East), or climate-change science, or Christians’ displaced fear of science and social change. It’s also a function of the baby-boomers’ becoming elderly. For half a century, they have dominated the culture, and now, as they enter the glide path to death, I think their generational solipsism unconsciously extrapolates approaching personal doom: When I go, everything goes with me, my end will be the end."
posted by R. Reynolds at 9:45 AM
11 Comments:
Ed,
You mention forced bussing (sic) as part of the Republican legacy. According to Kathleen Wiley and Juanita Broaddrick, it was actually a cornerstone of the Clinton administration.
I hate hate. Really. I hate hating. Why can't we all just get along? Oh -- that's right, we can't; we're the human species. We're programmed to hate until we wipe ourselves out, which should be in, oh, 2 generations or so.
One exception: I love hating W.
r
Thanks for pointing out the spelling error. Perhaps you missed the point, however, of the "forced busing" example. The word "forced" in this context was, and has been used relentlessly by Republicans to appeal to the bigot's greatest fear: integration.
Hate is the great unifier. It brings us all together. It is easy, feels good, and keeps the blood flowing.
One of the hardest emotions for us to deal with is love. We keep confusing it with other animal instincts.
In fact, I also love to hate Bush.
I even hate the idea that someone said it already! Damn! --USCE
Dear Anonymous:
More precisely, you love to hate hate. If you hated hating hate, you'd love hate. Me, I hate loving hate.
Dear Dim-Crat,
As if misquoting Bob Herbert were not enough, you multiply the idiocy with your "self admission" phrase, since deleted. Even the least rigorous bloggers perform rudimentary fact checks before placing their ignorance on display. While the New York Times editors routinely use classic turnspeak in their news and opinion pages, they have a luxury that bloggers do not: they can simply refuse to publish replies that do not conform to their narrow and discredited world view. The down side for the Times is that fewer and fewer readers take them seriously and fewer yet actually buy their publication, as evidenced by their circulation and financial numbers. As a blogger all you can do is moderate your page, filter out comments or delete responses you don't like. As a result, readers will soon surmise that you're a blowhard who can't tolerate criticism. They'll lose interest and not return. When one visitor represents 15% of your readership, you want to be careful about pulling comments you don't like.
Regarding Chapp-Igotry, a very astute philosophy professor once told me that the sum total of bigotry in the world has remained constant throughout human history, but the objects of that bigotry varied from generation to generation. My observations over the last four decades have convinced me that she was mistaken, if not about history at least about the prospects for the future. We don't have to accept a world where our bigotry equals that of our parents and grandparents. The cure for bigotry is human interaction. Since immigrants are five-to-seven times more likely to intermarry than White Anglo Americans, I am an optimist. In the past year I have attended a Greek-Dominican(Greek Orthodox/Nazarene) wedding, an Iraqi-Irish (Catholic/Catholic) wedding and Guyanese-Italian (Muslim/Catholic) wedding. There is hope. As Joe Cable told Emile de Becque: "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught." We teach by actions, not words and we use coded phrases such as "retaining the character of the community" to mask our bigoted behaviors. The next time you sign an environmental petition or attend a local zoning board meeting ask yourself: "What's the real motivation?" Scratch the surface and you'll discover that usually it's to keep "THEM" out.
Ever notice that the people who champion civil rights and integration most vocally live in segregated communities and people who spend half of their time howling at the moon spend the other half whining that nobody takes them seriously?
Who was that nutcase? Sounds like a Daily News reader to me.
Did he ever hear of brevity? Sounds like he's in love with himself.
That guy needs his own blog. But who would read it?
Dear vehemently anonymous,
Aside from Reagan merely opposing (as opposed to voting against) both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, you basically agreed with the thrust of the column: that Republicans harbor racial and religious intollerance for political purposes?
Daily News? Way to liberal!
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