The Great American Divide

"We are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%." (occupywallstreet.org)

Immediately after 9/11 everyone went on autopilot and came together as a united country.  We all wanted the same thing, to go after and punish the people who did this to us.  How dare someone attack us on our soil?  But it wasn’t long after that a distinct line in the sand was drawn between the people that thought we should retaliate against someone, anyone, because we had to show our power, and the people that wanted to gather the facts and go after the ones actually responsible.  Over the months this divide grew wider and wider as the government prepared to go to war with Iraq with shaky evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction laying about, even if Saddam Hussein and these WMD’s had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11.  We had to attack somebody, right?  When it was finally revealed that, yes, the government had fabricated and embellished the facts, and there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, instead of coming together in outrage, the divide in the country grew even broader.  On one side were the defenders of the war saying “We took Saddam Hussein out of power.  Are you saying that you don’t think he is a bad person?  You’re un-patriotic and un-American for not supporting your troops and president.  How DARE you question!”  On the other side were the people who were infuriated that the government went to war under false pretenses and straight out lies.  They wanted answers and wondered why we were still not going after the actual perpetrators.  But these people were afraid to speak out because to actually defend their position meant being attacked with irrationalism.  Again being told that they hated the troops or America and “Well we had to do something.  It doesn’t matter if they had nothing to do with 9/11.”

            During the Bush years it became cool to hate Muslims or really any brown skinned person.  Anyone in a headscarf was evil.  Anyone studying the Koran was evil.  Anyone of Middle Eastern descent was evil, even if they were born on U.S. soil.  Blatant racism became cool, even in the less racially divided states.  For some here, Delaware became a southern state and people started slapping Confederate flag stickers on their trucks and wearing t-shirts that read, “If you’re offended you need a history lesson”.  We were afraid to sit on any mode of transportation with a possible brown skinned terrorist.  “Oh wait, that guy’s Cuban, it’s ok, take off the cuffs and cease the beating, but we’re still going to place you on the no fly list just because.”  It’s not any better now.  We began a back slide and we’re still sliding.

            Ten years and a new president later we’re divided by a chasm, but now not only is there a racial divide but a distinct division of class.  Racism is not only cool it’s now mandatory.  The majority elected our first African American president with hopes of bringing the country back together but the racial hatred has only gotten worse and from the start he’s been plagued with immense challenges such as the Wall Street collapse and rising unemployment.  The majority that voted him in knew what he stood for; health care, getting the troops out of Iraq, etc. but the louder, uneducated factions of the minority party have done their damnedest to undermine this every chance they get and they’re not the majority!  They are a minority of the minority.  Yes, I’m referring to the Tea Party, the Sarah Palins, the Michelle Bachmans, the Christine O’Donnells, campaigns and agendas based on complete distortions of history, corruption, and out right lying.  The media feeds into these loud mouths because they are good news but if you’d actually go to one of these redneck fests you’d see it’s a small amount of people spewing hate.  The majority of them have absolutely no clue as to what they are so mad about except that there is a black man in the white house.  The “history” their movement is named after has nothing to do with what’s actually going on in present day America.  Proof of how ignorant their little sideshow is.  There’s no point in a discussion or conversation with someone that has the facts twisted from the get go.  I think that the smart people in the Republican Party got a huge wake-up call when some of the tea-partiers were actually elected.  I myself don’t base my vote on who can scream louder and make up the biggest fairytale so I don’t really understand the allure of the Tea Party.  I guess the passionate and pulpit-like ranting snows some people.  Right here in Delaware Mike Castle sat back and poo-pooed Christine O’Donnell because he thought she was a joke and there was no way in hell she would win the primary.  Stupid freakin’ move old man.  They are motivated and they are loud and even if it’s only a baker’s dozen of them they catch media attention and now the old guard is paying the price.  Remember McCain and Boehner calling some of them down during the last government shut down scare?  The ones that said they wouldn’t compromise or vote with Obama no matter what?

The Tea Party is out of control, don’t care, and the media is fanning the flames.  Not only are they yelling racial epitaphs, but now they are cheering about people dying due to lack of healthcare.  They admittedly vote against Obama on everything just because they hate him even if it was something they campaigned for.  Pretty childish, right?  When Osama Bin Laden was caught Obama basically got a golf clap and then admonishments from the Right saying that this made us less safe in the United States because we were stirring Al Queda up.  For real?  If the Bush administration would have actually gone after the right people and gotten Bin Laden there would have been a shit stomping, do si doeing, confetti parading, chest thumping holiday the next day.  Instead we all went to work on Monday cheering to ourselves and miffed at the Republicans that were actually mad about it because it happened during Obama’s term.  Real quote; “It don’t matter if he was president when this happened.  It means nothing.  Bush gets the credit.”  I won’t even get into the blatant flip-flopping about the war in Afghanistan. 

I bet some of you would be surprised to know that many of the Tea Party believe that there should be absolutely no government entitlements or help for anyone.  I’m talking about getting rid of Social Security, Medicare, Veterans benefits, disability, student loans, and any program you can think of that the government provides for.  If you still don’t care, think about it this way; your grandma’s social security check and subsidized housing would just go away.  Along with her health care, her heart medicine, a nursing home should she need it.  Hmmm, makes you think twice, huh?  Is almost half of our country a bunch of heartless jackasses?  I don’t think so.  There are a lot of smart people out there supporting this mess.  Some of them vote this way because their family always has or because they are just too busy or lazy to get the real facts.  I also think that a lot of people have no idea what’s really going on what so ever because of lack of access to real news, either by choice or circumstance.  When you only have thirty minutes of canned local news you’re not really seeing what’s going on in the world or getting a realistic, honest view.  That’s if everybody is even watching the minimum of news.  Of course there are a lot of jackasses who are enjoying spreading hate but they are absolutely not the majority.  We have a long history in this country of the rich convincing the poor, less informed people what is best for them.  Using scare tactics to keep the masses in line has worked for centuries.  Obama’s healthcare program, taxing the rich, and strengthening and expanding government programs HELPS the poor and disadvantaged but somehow the racist, religious, republican right has convinced the working class that they are on their side.  Why?  Because they share racism and religion with you?  They only side they are on is big business and big oil and we poor folks have nothing to do with that. 

            Not that I’m excusing the Democratic party either.  Obama was voted in because we wanted things to change.  We were tired of the Bush regime and eight years of lies and chest thumping.  Obama inherited many problems and he’s tried to reach across the aisle to compromise but his hand has been slapped back repeatedly and the “middle” is being pulled more and more right by the conservative extreme right.  The middle is no longer the middle.  It’s right of the middle and still Obama tries to compromise, which has become his biggest mistake and why his base is now frustrated.  The Right has made it clear that there is going to be no compromise and once that was made clear over a year ago Obama should have stood up and said “Enough!”  The Bush administration pushed their agenda through without a thought or care.  Remember “executive rule” with ol’ Dick Cheney and the Iraq war agenda that was jammed through without vote or consequence even after we knew it was all bullshit?  Obama’s vision is still clear.  Grow a pair and push it through!  Stand up for your voters!  The voters, that are by the thousands, losing their jobs and dropping into poverty. 

Our middle class is completely disappearing.  Job creation is at a standstill and no improvement is in sight with local and state government employees being forced to take furlough days or completely losing their jobs and soon the closing of over 200 post offices around the country and the threat of the conservative right looming in the shadows aching to cut entitlements and government programs.  Unemployment statistics don’t show the true picture.  They only show the number of people applying for unemployment benefits but not all the people that are actually out of work or underemployed.  Underemployment that is perpetuated by the big companies in our country, supported by Republicans, that would rather hire two people and schedule each just below full time hours so that they don’t have to give them benefits, or send jobs overseas because they “claim” they are all “Nervous Nelly” about a shitty economy that they helped ruin.  These are your friends that have your best interest at heart, remember?  You’re lucky to have a job, right?

            Something needs to happen in this country and soon.  Obama needs to step up to the plate and keep his promises and the lower classes need to come together and stop hurting each other.  As unemployment holds steady there is an increase in crime against people in the same social class; poor people robbing poor people.  We’ve got to stop judging people that are in need and assuming that they “did it to themselves”.  It’s all so easy for any of us to lose our job, our electric, our home.  We’re all frustrated but striking out against each other is not the solution.  We need to help each other because we are the only ones that know what each other is going through when we’re scrimping by paycheck to paycheck.  It’s not the rich running the soup kitchens or the food banks.  It’s the people in your community that have been where you are and know that they could be back there again.  I’m hoping the silent majority will come together again when it really counts. 





Because I know I will be questioned about my Dick Cheney comment, you may follow up here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/etc/synopsis.html