What has happened to civility in America? I am old enough to remember a time when there was discourse in the United States. You know, discourse, when two people or two groups of people could have civil discussions. I can even remember a time when Democrats and Republicans would dine together, have Friday night poker games together, and walk down the halls of congress together. Well, those days are over. I fear that those days are over for good. I am afraid the line has become a wall.
You know how these things happen. A little change here, a little change there, and then one day you notice that everything has changed. It’s like the, “wow, I didn’t see that coming” moment. Then when you do look around you notice that what you see doesn’t resemble anything you remember. You remember that it was becoming more difficult to see eye to eye with cousin Dan, now you don’t even speak. You remember that you couldn’t quite grasp the point’s aunt Jane was trying to make and now those points are scary enough to give you goose bumps. You remember a time when you and your friend Bob used to laugh together about,”those damn politicians”, now he is stockpiling weapons and ammunitions, and he doesn’t laugh anymore.
What was it? What happened that I didn’t see coming? In trying to track it backwards, I always seem to arrive at the same point. It was after 911 that President Bush declared that, “you’re either with us or you’re against us”. Now hold your horses, I’m not blaming this on President Bush. It just happens to coincide with what I see as the ball cresting the hill and starting down the other side. That was when everything started to change in America. It was the day that the terrorists could claim victory over us.
What was it that started to happen? Well, for starters it was when we began that long, slow slide backwards in our march for civil rights and equal justice. Racial discrimination did not disappear in America, it just moved into the shadows. It has lurked there, just below the surface, for a long time waiting for a chance to rise up and show its face again. There have always been bigots in the land of the free and there always will be. Now it was different. Now there was a cause to hang their hate on and claim its righteousness. Now was their chance to show how right they have always been. Now no one could defend their target. Now they could claim to be patriots defending America against those not like us, those that are against us. Now it had become not bigotry, it was a religious war against the Muslims, just like in the old days. Once that happened it was easy to start expanding their target list.
Their other targets were the usual suspects. The illegal immigrants, then blacks, people on welfare, the unemployed. Then it became very clear. You could look at the rallies and with very little imagination begin to see the sheets come out of the closet. I started to look at the crowd that attended these rallies and I began to ask myself, where were the Blacks, the Asians, the Latinos, the Jews. Then I realized that this wasn’t just a war against Muslims, it was against everyone that didn’t look like “us”. It was a frightening realization. It was blatantly clear when you compared rallies and campaign stops of the two parties. One was all white, the other a rainbow of races, colors, and ages.
Another thing that I began to notice was the tone, the venom directed at the “other” party. All of a sudden, the other party was included in the gang that was against “us”. They didn’t love America like we did; they secretly hated democracy and only wanted to take our democracy away from us. They weren’t like “us”, they (he) was a Muslim come to destroy America, and he was the Anti-Christ. It became the duty of all good Christians to defeat this defiler of our church.
At first, it was a fringe thing. Then when the mainstream politicians began to see how big the crowds were growing, the decided it was time to get on that wagon and ride it victory against the “other”. One candidate began to speak in the military vernacular. Terms like, “lock and load”, don’t let them “disarm” you, “consolidate and reorganize”. Next thing I began to see was people coming to rallies of the opposing party wearing guns, loaded guns. I was always curious why they couldn't attend her rallies wearing guns, only the “others”. Then speech began to get hateful. You could hear people in the crowd yelling for the opponent’s death. There were racial slurs and more and more you began to see people showing up in battle dress.
There were calls for reason. There were politicians, religious leaders and everyday citizens that sounded the alarm, called for civility. They believed that the discourse was becoming so hateful, so inflammatory, that if it wasn’t scaled back there would be no way the two sides would ever be able to work together again for the good of the “American” people. During the heat of the midterms, a group of 130 former legislators from both sides of the aisle issued a warning to candidates that the tone of their campaigns could undermine their ability to work effectively together as legislators. Eight in 10 Americans believe that the lack of civil discourse among our political leaders is a serious problem, according to recent polling by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). More people agree on that fact than on what religion President Barack Obama is. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45589.html
These calls for civility went unheard. An entire political party became a hostage. The Republican Party was very quickly becoming irrelevant. In their place was the new “Tea Party”. They were the only true patriots. They were the only ones that were fighting to restore America’s greatness and glory. They were the party of the real conservative Christian right. They began to demand that candidates pass a test to measure just how truly conservative they were to run for office in their party or that other “Republican Party”. They began to challenge Republicans for seats in congress, and they became the favorites. When the dust had settled they came out ahead of the Republicans. In addition, for those “Blue Dog” democrats that voted against the health care bill, well, they lost their seats too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Coalition
Fast forward to today. Now it has really gotten scary. Now we hear calls for “literacy tests”. You remember those, right. The tests used to keep blacks from voting in the south. “As used by the states, the literacy test gained infamy as a means for denying suffrage to African-Americans. Adopted by a number of southern states, the literacy test was applied in a patently unfair manner, as it was used to disfranchise many literate blacks while allowing many illiterate whites to vote. This was accomplished by making the test inordinately difficult and allowing test-givers to choose who had to take the test and who did not. The literacy test, combined with other discriminatory requirements, effectively disfranchised most African-Americans in the south from the 1890s until the 1960s. Southern states abandoned the literacy test only when forced to do so by federal legislation in the 1960s. It took the Supreme Court to force stats to abandon the practice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test
We are also hearing that the Tea Party, now that they have grabbed control of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Republicans, are also demanding that only “land owners” should have the right to vote. You can visit this site to hear their argument. http://hubpages.com/hub/Requiring-property-ownership-to-vote. They would deny the vote to; non-land owners, people who don’t pay taxes, people who receive public assistance, etc. So, here we go, to vote you have to own land, pass a literacy test and, what, be white. We hear about states like Texas that want to secede. Oh yeah, and he wants to send U.S. troops into Mexico to wage war against the drug cartel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Perry, http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local news/article/Perry-says-consider-military-in-Mexico-821581.php. We have groups that want to do away with constitutional law and replace it with biblical law, we have groups that want a new amendment (it would be the 28th) to the constitution allowing the states to disregard all federal laws. If that’s the case, why have a congress that’s only job is to pass laws. Who would this group like to see replace the congress?
OK, I have ranted long enough. I would like to thank you for allowing me to dump all this on your shoulders. Mine were giving out under the weight of what I see as the lack of civility of not only our politicians but families and friends. We have become a nation so strongly divided on the issues of race and religion that I am afraid for our future. I can say without reservation that I believe that each day our enemies get closer to victory by destroying us from within. I can also say that I believe it all started with a simple statement, “President George W. Bush, in an address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 said, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_either_with_us,_or_against_us
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