I feel as though I'm living in the Land of Oz. I see hate merchants without hearts using their "fear and smear" campaign to manipulate people who lack the brains to understand they're being duped, and an opposition refusing to openly condemn these wicked charlatans and exalt our better angels because they don't have the courage. Haters and cowards and dopes, oh my! Haters and cowards and dopes, oh my! We all bear some responsibility for this state of affairs. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me every time you open your mouth, and there's something pathologically wrong with both of us. This trend doesn't require anywhere near 100% participation to do tremendous damage, so the fact that some rise above this doesn't relieve the problem.
The general public bears the most blame, but that doesn't absolve anyone else. The least blameworthy are the "leaders" who should take principled stands but choose to be cautious instead. Yes, they should have integrity and the courage of their convictions, but if we enlist them to fight the good fight, only to crucify them for telling us the unpopular truth, we can hardly fault them for saluting us with one finger. As far as the purveyors of fear and hatred go, yes, they're despicable but we're supporting them. Rush Limbaugh is a wretched persona whose every broadcast is like an upper decker in America's toilet, but we've made him the biggest thing on radio since Fr. Coughlin broadcast his anti-Semitic screeds in the 1930's. We've always had an abundant supply of people who spew ignorance and hatred. Our demand for these shrill voices is what fluctuates, and at the moment we can't get enough. In the infancy of Obama's presidency, RNC chairman Michael Steele learned the peril of speaking the truth about Rush Limbaugh. He conceded that what Rush did was incendiary and ugly. The ensuing firestorm forced Steele to crawl on his hands and knees to kiss Rush's ring. Again, we want people to martyr themselves by speaking the truth, but we should recognize that self-preservation is a hard-wired instinct.
There are real costs to what's happening. We're unable to forge the cooperation we need to address the crises ravaging our lives. I understand that Democrats are in power and Republicans as an opposition party have different ideas. Opposition is healthy, but they're not acting as opponents; they're acting as enemies. Political opponents see things differently and offer different prescriptions to cure our ills. Political enemies are solely interested in their rivals' demise. Right now Republicans seek to destroy this administration. If President Obama says A, Republicans swear that B is the only answer. Had he said B, they would swear that A is the only answer. Lawmakers have a duty to put aside their differences and work for the public good. Deliberately prolonging the suffering of the American people is unconscionable and unforgivable.
The rampant spread of anti-Islamic bigotry is also a potentially catastrophic problem. While difficult to quantify and measure, there's a cost to poisoning our national soul. A recent Pew Research poll showed that 25% of Americans (42% of Republicans) believe local communities should be able to forbid the construction of mosques. Only 47% of Republicans believe that Muslims should have the same right to worship as other faiths! Among the majority of Republicans who would deny 1st Amendment rights to Muslims, I bet most of them scream about Obama not honoring a narrow interpretation of the Constitution. I also bet they don't see their hypocrisy. I'm troubled that as President Obama is increasingly portrayed as the bogeyman, he's also increasingly believed to be Muslim. Among Republicans, 31% say he's a Muslim and only 27% correctly identify him as a Christian.
More importantly, we have military personnel risking their lives in Islamic lands trying to stop terrorism. This is not conventional warfare where we exert force until they say Uncle. Hearts and minds are the central front in this campaign. If we continue to convey the message that Islam itself is our enemy, then we will have done to ourselves what our enemy is incapable of doing -- we will have made our failure an iron-clad guarantee. We're not there yet, but we're taking dangerously idiotic steps in that direction. Effectively telling the Islamic world that the sleazy strip club near "Ground zero" doesn't defile this sacred ground but their house of worship does is a slap in the face that should deeply offend them.
It's not too late for cooler heads to prevail and pull us back from the brink. Let's return to a United States that isn't dominated by hatred and division. That country is my home and, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home..."
