Blue Notes from a Red Zone

Hate Speech

Bill O'Reilly was interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show earlier this week in one of the funnier bits since the election. Jon's premise was that Bill has been talking a lot about his fears concerning an Obama presidency, and Jon was hoping to create a safe place so that Bill wouldn't have to worry so much. He gave Bill a small teddy bear, and brought out hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Apparently, there are a lot of people who need help finding a safe space right now, because despite the general national euphoria over the Obama win (70% of the population feels very positive about his coming administration), there are pockets of people who have been genuinely terrified of all the "palling around with terrorists" talk.

Unfortunately, they don't say, "I'm very frightened." No, many of them prefer to project outward.

Not far from my house, there is a small business selling t-shirts, bumper stickers and signs to "real Americans," the conservative "patriots" who are the only persons apparently entitled to live in the United States. Judging from the cars I see on the road, this store is doing landslide business. Anytime I'm out in my car, I see all kinds of bumper stickers with sayings like: "Beware of liberals posing as Americans."

The "love it or leave it" crowd has never been very attractive, with their platform that anyone who doesn't adhere to an extreme right wing platform is by definition a traitor who should be deported from the country (the most singularly unAmerican belief I can imagine). But now that they see the entire government slipping into the hands of the great "other," their fear has unleashed rage of epic proportions. The Secret Service is reporting direct threats against Obama and his family far in excess of those seen against any other president.

This rage is not new, of course. The hatred unleashed against the Clintons was beyond all reason, literally. Bill Clinton's personal life was not ideal, but there are plenty of Republicans, including those who led the charge against him, who have as much or more to answer for. All of us err, and those in power tend to sin more than most. However, Clinton's personal life could hardly account for the rage he inspired, and this during a time when the country was prosperous, 22 million jobs were created, the government started generating budget surpluses, and we were primarily at peace.

Now a Republican administration has led us into economic catastrophe, two wars, and a government so corrupt that it seems almost impossible to begin cataloguing all the ills. Most of us feel vulnerable, and those losing power feel the most vulnerable of all. So they lash out.

All the same, it isn't healthy, and it isn't patriotic. Above all, it isn't witty or funny. Slamming people as traitors because they look different and/or have different political views is hateful and small.

Dissent is vital to a functioning democracy, whether it comes from the right, the left, or the middle. But it doesn't have to be hate speech to be heard. We can do better than that.

posted by Lenore Wilson @ 3:35 AM