Politics aside, this is not about ideology or what each side perceives to be the right course of action, it is simply about our moral and ethical obligations to treat our fellow countrymen with dignity and respect because, it seems we have become a nation of assholes and it also seems that we are not only OK with it, we reward it. Yes, this post was inspired by the recent comments former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, about how our President, who was voted into office two times by a majority of Americans and by extension that majority should also be offended because it seems we are all dumb enough to get duped into voting the man, does not love America, etc, etc, etc....a bunch of negative crap that neither does anything to help nor solve any problems. But it does do something and this what this blog is about.
For one thing, when he and other fringe politicos from the right and left say things as such, the worst of what they are doing is affirming certain peoples suspicions (regardless of how untrue they might be), beliefs, ideas, and most horribly their anger. My issues then is where does it stop? How can we be so sure that our entrenched beliefs and now anger does not turn into some monstrous form of hate. Hatred for a group of people whose only crime is not being exactly like the other group for whatever reason or another. Now, we as humans have a sorted history of pogroms, pitchfork wielding mobs, burning people at the stake, lynching, beheading, and worst of all GENOCIDE. Yeah, not only once or twice either. It took years of resentment and one asshole on the radio to set off a whole entire group of people in Rwanda in 1994 resulting in the death of more than 500,000 people. You know what he was doing on the radio?? Affirming one groups anger, hatred, suspicion and belief about another group of people with words. Powerful words filled with contempt and rage. You think Americans are too smart to fall for something like that? What happened in 1938 when Orson Welles narrated his story War of the Worlds? That was an unbelievable fictional story. When you hear the same thing day in and day out, it becomes reality, period.
Secondly when politicians spew venom, dagger of hatred and shade towards one another they are rewarded, by us. We give them support and we give them money. Money they do not deserve. This reinforces their behavior. How much did people pay to sit at that dinner with Giuliani and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker? Not only are they rewarded monetarily for this, we have a whole entire media industry that is paid to do this. Paid to create and promote some of the most negative awful proliferation of purely useless shade ever. It is so similar to the Nazi propaganda office BS it is vomit inducing. Furthermore, we support each other in our personal endeavors of damning the other on Facebook, on Instagram, Tweeting and what have you. It drives me crazy. Do we all have to believe the same thing, feel the same way, act the same way? No. But we do not have to be jerks about. Listen if you don't like Starbucks that is fine, who cares right? But we don't have to criticize people who actually go to Starbucks in our tirades on the inter-web. You prefer Dunkin Doughnuts over Krispy Kreme, awesome, you do not have to start a war in the comments section about how all the people who eat Krispy Kreme are devil worshiping ignoramuses hell bent on destroying our communities. They just like a warm free doughnut when the light is on. But, when we attack on a personal level there will always be people agreeing with us, affirming our beliefs after we affirmed their similar sneaking suspicions. And we wonder why we have a bullying problem with our children. Name calling and personal attacks are nothing but bullying with a different name. Because I prefer Starbucks over a gas station coffee does not make me crazy or snobby, it just means that I prefer Starbucks coffee over Kwik Trip.
That line of thinking leads me to my next point about how damaging this idea is to our country and society as a whole. Ironically it leads me to believe that these politicians and pundits have zero faith in our governing system. Our founding fathers created a government that has been touted for centuries, and rightly so, that is meant to protect us from tyranny and corruption. If you truly believe that our President of the United States Of America does not "love America enough" or is a dangerous communist hell bent on dismantling all that makes our country what it is what you are doing, aside from insulting everyone who holds similar beliefs and ideas, is projecting that the foundations of our government do not work. It reflects zero trust in our system and that is the fatal flaw. You logically cannot, in the same breath crow about how great the American system of government is, then say our country is in danger of being taken over by an anti-Christ, un-American President, whose office is only designed to hold as much power, if not less than our United States Congress and Supreme Court. There is nothing more anti-American than not believing in our system.
Lastly and most stinging is that its insulting and because of that we deserve better. All of us, it does not matter what political spectrum you hail from. We deserve politicians and political candidates, who get paid a lot of money mind you, who are bright enough and articulate enough to hold their own in a debate or speech without getting personally nasty towards another candidate or whole political party. Debating ideas and your particular ideologue in a constructive and conducive way is the only way things should be handled. Personally I would give more money and support to anyone of any political party who actually has enough common decency to be gracious for the position they are in, to be productive with their speech and criticism, and who understands that America has real problems to solve that do not benefit nor require juvenile name calling or spitting daggers directed in a personal nature. What is happening is the most vile ploy known to man. It is the proverbial selling of the soul to the devil for what you want, but it will come at a price. Just because it seems to be the easy way of getting what you want does not make it the right way. I am not a praying woman, but if I was, I would pray to God that this trend ends because it is doing nothing at all to help our country. A country that thousands of men and women have laid their life down with honor for. With free speech comes the ethical and the moral responsibility to use it correctly and might I add productively.
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