I watched the RNC last night and was amazed to find out what bad shape our country is in, due primarily to political correctness, and the death of racism in this country (as we might have known it). Make no mistake, Trump is a dangerous man and the fact that he is an outsider not only makes him unqualified for even dog catcher but his business acumen and his frequent use of the bankruptcy laws make him a less than stellar pillar of the business community. And this is their choice to lead them? If the main plank of your platform is to demonize and dehumanize your opponent then your campaign is lacking clear policy direction.
It all sounded like a pep rally, a dangerous pep rally. I have said it had all the charm of a Bund rally. It harkens back to a simpler time, a violent time, that of 1968...the silent majority and a law and order platform. Peter Thiel, a gay billionaire who spoke last night, totally ignored the plank in the party's campaign platform calling for the accepted use of conversion therapy for gays when the parent deems it appropriate (this is in the guise of parental rights). He also ignored the fact that Pence's Indiana has a Religious Freedom Restoration Act which permits business to discriminate against any individual if it offends any of their religious beliefs. Talk about voting against your interests. All this is to say that "whitey" is losing power and is digging his/her collective heels in and won't give up without an ugly fight. And again I say how is racism dead when the penultimate image of the kitchen is Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima. How is that still a thing?
I hear men with rifles and shotguns dipping their bullets in pig's blood so when they shoot a Muslim that Muslim will go straight to Hell. How is that even an idea? We demonize all Muslims. How is that not racist or discriminatory? This is not the America I want any part of.
I had a discussion with my financial guy who said he opposed Black Lives Matter when they blocked his entrance to Macy's. Sorry it inconvenienced you but maybe that was the point. I won't cross a picket line and by the same token any line that is political in nature and is exercising free speech. They are not saying "Kill whitey"; that would be an abuse of free speech. They are saying, however, African Americans are living under a dual system of justice and are "inconvenienced" as such and we just want to make you a little less comfortable. You characterized African American males in the Watertower as threatening to you and felt the police were justified in well, basically, harassing them by following them. That isn't right. Defending Black Lives Matter isn't the definition of political correctness. That is the definition of political justice. If black males scare you, you might do some soul searching to figure out why.
I see so much hate now from the Right as whites lose their white privileges. This is a diverse country, a melting pot as it were, accepting immigrants from all shores to ours. How can we turn our backs on our history? And our history, our Founding Fathers, were Deists, not Theists as some might see them. Just look at Thomas Jefferson, owner of slaves, writer of the Declaration of Independence, conflicted at every turn, but writing that "All men are created equal", not 3/5 a person, as slaves were counted. Southerners demanded that Blacks be counted with whites. The compromise clearly reflected the strength of the pro-slavery forces at the Constitutional Convention. The “Three-fifths Compromise” allowed a state to count three fifths of each Black person in determining political representation in the House. How is that equal? Jefferson the Deist believed
in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does
not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an
intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the
existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a
supernatural deity who interacts with humankind. That is the truth of the matter. This is a Judeo-Christian Nation now, more Christian than Judeo, but not what the founders envisioned. Our ideas have become twisted by hatred of outsiders, of those who are different.
I keep going back to the Religious Freedom Restoration acts flooding the country. You need a law to discriminate and call it religious freedom? WWJD? This is just what some misguided folks see as an attack on christian fundamentalism when we are made to not discriminate. They call out attacks on Christmas, but the last I knew Christmas is a big holiday and there is no war on Christmas. Just a passage to more diversity. An acknowledgment that there is more that one religion. As a Jewish woman I feel the vestiges of antisemitism around me. I am not being paranoid. I am made to not work on Christmas. I am made to labor on the Sabbath because my Sabbath is not your Sabbath. How is this a war on Christians who dominate the conversation and declare that there is reverse racism and that is more odious by far that actual racism or lazy antisemitic behaviors.
I am wandering again and not clearly making my point. I see hate all around me in the guise of America First. And White, Christian America First. Build a wall, protect the police from accusations of over-reaching. Law and Order and the Silent Majority are alive an well.
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