The Tea Party and the Ship of State

Ever since the Tea Party was first formed one of their mantras has been “Take Our Country Back”.  Take it back from whom?  I hadn’t noticed any less ability to indulge in any activity, civil, religious, or otherwise in the recent past.  As far as I was concerned things were chugging along quite slowly economically, but otherwise pretty much the same.

I knew that ever since the Civil Rights legislation in the 1960’s, more and more black and brown people were on TV, in our colleges and universities, were doctors, lawyers, teachers, law enforcement and in  government, all of which I thought was a really good thing, but I was busy in my life, and didn’t give it too much thought.  When Barack Obama was a candidate in 2008 a friend of mine was hesitant to vote for him, but couldn’t tolerate Senator McCain. I convinced her to vote for Obama’s white half, which she did.  I was also aware that there was a real residual of racism in this country left over from our abominable history of slavery, and a fear and dislike of anything that was not like “us”.

Then when the Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, got the state legislature to allow him to set aside any lower government body he didn’t like and to appoint his own city manager in its place, he quickly decided to eliminate the duly elected City Council of Bel Haven, a predominately black community, because he thought they weren’t running the City the way he wanted it to be run. I was pretty disturbed because I had been an elected official, and took that responsibility pretty seriously.  It turned out that what the developers wanted was the City Park, the land for which had been donated years before for the exclusive use of the city residents.  It was lake front property.  Oh, yes.  I heard recently that the park had been sold to the developers, and is now a commercial development.  The black residents lost out.

Then the governor did the same thing to the City of Detroit.  What was wanted there was all of the art, etc. in the city museum, to be sold to the highest bidder to pay for redevelopment in the downtown area of Detroit.  Fortunately for the City, that proposal was blocked.  Detroit is a predominately black city.  When that ploy didn’t work, and the city really tanked under the appointed manager, the manager cut worker’s pensions, fired whoever they could, and then cut off water service to those who had trouble paying their water bills because they had been let go.

A great many of these states who had predominately Republican-led governments, after the last census gerrymandered congressional districts in their states so that Republicans could not be voted out of office, even though more Democrats voted in the total of the entire state.  Needless to say, the gerrymandered districts were predominately white, and the others were predominately black. 

At the same time, state after state was passing bills to disenfranchise minority voters using a variety of means.  Most of these bills were struck down by the federal courts, but the impression left was that minority, poor and senior votes counted far less than the votes of conservative evangelical Christian white people.  Those who used to be called WASPs.  That is, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.  These lesser black and brown people ought not to be allowed to vote at all.

Then we had the rise of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, along with Lou Dobbs and Glen Beck spewing their racial, sexist, and religious right views into the general public.  It was pretty obvious that this racial and sexist disparagement of the “other” was beginning to make further inroads into the unconscious minds of many of our citizens.  Not racial hatred, per se, but a distinct devaluing of the lives of those who are not “like us”, who do not have “our” values of respect for the law, who by nature are violent, and who need to be controlled by whatever means. 

I write this because it is my opinion, and I have no documentation or proof, that this devaluing of the lives of minorities has infiltrated some, and let me emphasize, only some of our law enforcement officers.  Particularly those who watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh. Thus, with these relatively few officers, considering the thousands out there, when they are confronted with a black or brown male whom they perceive, rightly or wrongly, to be questioning their police authority, the young male definitely needs to be controlled less he become violent, and the situation gets quickly out of control as a result.  It is wrong to assume that the officer “hates” the other person.  He, or she, probably does not hate anyone.  But fears the black or brown male?  Most definitely!  And since that black or brown male is already a danger by his simple existence, it is OK to shoot first and ask questions later.

It is incumbent, once again in my opinion, that the thoughtful, non-Fox News, white community needs to take an active role in fighting against this denigration of minorities, poor people, women and seniors.  We all, whatever our skin color, have a lot to lose.  Our safety nets like food stamps, Medicare, Social Security, medical care for women in all circumstances, health care, a healthy environment, healthy food and water, and decent schools for all of our kids.  Black lives matter, as do the lives of all poor people, women and seniors.  Death by shooting is a terrible thing.  But so is death by starvation, cold, or lack of proper medical care.  There used to be a poster during the 1960’s: God Doesn’t Make Junk.  That applies to all of us because we are all in this ship of state together.