The net result of one political party which lost big and finds itself leaderless, coupled with another political party which finds its leader lost, is mayhem and chaos, which spirals into hate and villianization. And, possibly, violence.
Welcome to what’s left of the red-state white-hot summer of hate, homophobia, racism, bigotry, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and any other “-ism,” “-ia,” and “-y,” you can place atop your particular personal prejudices, or, “theirs.”
Today, the nine-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, America finds itself more polarized, divided, angry, and on the brink of a national nervous breakdown than we were when the twin towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania all fell victim to the worst attack on U.S. soil — that wasn’t self-inflicted during our civil war. Or, from the British during our Revolutionary War.
How did we get here?
Well, here are the Cliff notes.
Decades ago, conservatives forgot what being a conservative was really about.
They abused their power and spent our money like it was, well, our money. And not theirs.
The Democrats were born without a spine and spent far too many of the Bush 43 years pretending what Republicans were saying was true. Especially about Democrats. And, you know Saddam Hussein. And WMD. And deregulation. And housing. And Iran. And oil.
George W. Bush sucked.
America let him.
(Probably because they all wanted to have a beer with him. Go figure.)
The mainstream media helped.
The economy melted down.
A lot of people saw their savings, 401k’s, and jobs go up in smoke, thanks to the unmitigated greed of a few people called “bankers,” “financial analysts,” “brokers,” and “money managers.”
Some of those people who saw their savings, 401k’s, and jobs go up in smoke realized they shared the blame for allowing politicians to let all this happen. But a few didn’t want to take the blame, so they got angry and formed a “Tea Party” because it’s really easy to blame some young black guy who has more smarts in his pinky finger than they do in their, um, pinky fingers. Collectively.
The Tea Party bosses got lots of money from scary capitalists like the Koch Brothers, even though the Tea Party members didn’t know it.
Because stupid people think it’s OK to say and do stupid things, the Tea Party started to say and do stupid things, like calling the president names, like “socialist,” “marxist,” “communist,” using the “N” word, making really bad signs, carrying guns, and getting together at rallies with folding picnic chairs, and yelling racial and sexual slurs. A lot.
Then, almost a year after it was front page news, the Tea Party realized a group of peaceful Muslims wanted to live the American dream of owning real estate and putting a really big building on a really small piece of land, which they owned and were in the process of adding on to, and this got the Tea Party people really scared, because it happened to be in “New York City,” two blocks from where “those people” bombed us nine years ago. (Never mind the fact that “New York City” isn’t part of the “real America.”) And those Tea Party folks thought it felt good to blame innocent people with names they didn’t like but sounded like their president’s name, (“Barack HUSSEIN Obama!”) whom they also didn’t like, and, well, everybody else in their klan was doing it so, hey, why not?
Deposition of Pastor Terry Jones
While all this was happening, Terry Jones, a so-called “preacher” with an eBay furniture business he operates out of his church, who uses members of his congregation for unpaid labor, who preaches family values yet won’t talk to his own daughter, decided it would be cool to be on the T.V. like those other big ministers, and so his god “told” him that Florida sounded like a great place to hold an international event. Since he didn’t like Muslims he decided their holy book was an easy target and he could make some money and become famous by burning books, and even though he had never even read the Koran, it must be “of the devil,” just like that old-time religion of 1.5 billion Muslims. He thought he heard his god say this to him, so he decided to throw a book-burning party and name it, “International Burn A Koran Day.”
And, what better day to use than 9/11?
So, that’s how we got here.
Any questions?
Oh, yeah, as to “Death To America?”
Deposition of Pastor Terry Jones
It’s what the radical folks in the Middle East say, because they hear megalomaniacs like some Florida preacher say he’s going to burn their holyist of holy books. It’s what the radical folks in the Middle East say, because we invade their countries, kill their families and rape their women and children, claim they have weapons of mass destruction, torture them, say their religion is “of the devil,” yet we claim we are civilized, but show no regard for them as human beings.
It’s what the radical folks in the Middle East say. Just like what a radical preacher in a tiny Florida town says about them. Just like what radical American politicians, like Michele Bachmann, who, about Islam, say, “Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal.” Or radical American politicians, like John McCain, who say, “Bomb, bomb Iran.”
“Bomb, bomb Iran.”
“Death to America.”
What’s the difference?
“Death To America,” if it comes, will be self-inflicted. It will come not at the hands of those outside America, but at the hands of all those in America, who claim to love their country, yet hate most everyone in it.
The people who attacked America on 9/11 will have won when we have become hateful and scared. But ask yourself, when we threaten to burn Korans, have we become hateful and scared? When we try to stop a religious community center from being built because it’s Islamic, yet welcoming of all faiths, have we become hateful and scared? When a radical Christian church that explicitly hates Muslims, Mormons and gays is launched, also two blocks from Ground Zero, yet goes unnoticed, have we become hateful and scared?
This is an old, old story. We are merely the latest players in this war as old as “our” Bible — and we will never be able to end it if we don’t stop threatening to burn theirs. We are never going to end it if we continue to invade and occupy other countries, treat Islam as if it’s “of the devil,” and treat Muslims as if they are “of the devil.” We are never going to end it if we protest their right to build a mosque, or a community. We are never going to end it if we don’t stop acting like Americans, and start acting like America.