"Mr. President, Why Do People Hate You?". This was a question that was posed to President Obama by a fourth-grader last week, and it should cause us all to stop for a moment and reflect on what has transpired over the past year or so.
Win or lose (depending on your candidate of choice), Election 2012 marks a significant lowlight. Campaigns, especially presidential campaigns, are often brutal affairs. But this one was nastier, uglier, and more comprehensive in negativity that was often dipped in racist dogma; involving everyone from individual citizens to a higher institutional level that even included elected officials. This election wasn’t about voting someone into office to make us great or "fight the good fight". It was an election based on manufactured hate. Frankly, it’s been enough to make my stomach turn.
Let me be clear: this applies to Democrats as well as Republicans. I wrote awhile back on the story of a guy who was beaten because he put a pro-Romney sign in his yard, and another one about a teen who was mocked by her teacher at school for wearing a pro-Romney shirt. Both of these incidents are wrong on so many levels that I hardly know where to begin. But I’ll give it a shot by referring to my own experience, especially my years going to an almost all-white private prep school from grades 7-12.
My school high school was an extremely right-leaning prep school. When Ronald Reagan was running for the presidency, there were often strong disagreements on who to support with my classmates, at no time was I ever ridiculed by a teacher for my beliefs as a Democratic. It’s unconscionable to me to know that the supporters of a President who has been so badly maligned would stoop to the kind of lows. This is especially true when one of the “stoopers” is a teacher. It’s not right or funny under any circumstance.
(Note: at no time was I physically threatened by my political affiliations though I would never be naïve enough to suggest that such things didn’t happen somewhere in Cleveland given the great racial divide at the time.)
I would rather err on the side of protecting the rights for everyone than merely getting what I want for myself. It’s that aspect of personal accountability with respect to propriety, or lack thereof, that’s been so shocking. I’ve been surprised how many people have been willing to condone outrageous and/or disgusting behavior, either outright or by their silence, as long as the ends justify the means; no matter how bad the collateral damage to our system of governance. When you see someone observing abhorrent behavior while acting as if nothing is happening, it’s hard not to also see "guilt by association".
Let’s take a look at just a handful of the more visible and egregious instances of personal attacks on the President, his race, and his religion:
- Ann Coulter referring to the President as "the retard"
- Donald Trump continuing to question the President’s citizenship with no repudiation by the GOP candidate
- John Sununu’s statement that Colin Powell’s endorsement of the President was made because of their common race
- Paul Ryan’s attack on the President by saying that his policies would threaten Judeo-Christian values
- "Put the white back in the White House" t-shirts proudly on display with no mention by the GOP candidate himself
- Effigies of our African-American President with nooses around their necks
The list could go on, but you get the point.
It’s just as easy, however, to find examples of personal attacks against Bush in 2004. So after noting my disgust at the above examples of bad behavior, I’ll move on, albeit begrudgingly, to the more disturbing examples of how the GOP used positions of power to take away the vote of the citizenry:
- Voter ID laws, PA in particular, that had little to do with countering voter fraud and everything to do with making it more difficult for people to vote, presumably those who would be more inclined to vote for the President.
- Cuts to Early Voting hours that were designed to undercut the voter turnout for African-Americans, Latinos, and others most likely to vote for the President.
- Ohio attempting to dramatically cut early voting days, and refusals to extend Early Voting hours in Ohio and Florida even as citizens stood in lines of up to 7 hours so that their voice could be heard.
These examples are more troubling in terms of our future discourse as a nation. It’s bad enough when individuals can’t discuss/disagree without going to such a guttural level. It’s more reprehensible when the perceived attacks come from elected officials who are supposed to protect and promote the greater good for all of their citizenry. How can OH Secretary of State Jon Husted or FL Governor Rick Scott pretend to be effective leaders when both have said “Screw you” to their respective electorates, not to mention how this further undermines the eroding trust between citizens and their Government.
In the end, nobody wins from any of these actions. The winners in this election, the Democrats and Obama supporters, no longer feel they can trust government officials and institutions that they should be able to trust, nor the people who stood by in silence while all these things happened. The losers, in this case the Republicans and Romney supporters, will also continue to feel that they can no longer trust the government to look out for their interests (as fueled by the machinations of entities like Fox News).
Personal mistrust is high on both sides, and I’m not sure even for myself how we move forward. This is especially so after yet another FB discussion with someone who couldn’t understand why acknowledging the personal attacks on the President – especially the race-based ones – is so important to me. As a gay African-American male who has personally felt attacked and “at war” with what appeared to be the potential for looming GOP legislation to assail my rights, it’s not enough to “agree to disagree”. This battle was about very real concerns to my prospects for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". If someone can’t acknowledge that in the greater context, then our friendship has no life.
So what is the answer to moving forward with civility, as individuals and as a country? I’ll tell you when I find my own answers while also repairing my own excursions over the “decency line” (thanks Marcia).