Hate in Post-Election America

There was going to be backlash. Whichever way the vote went last night, there was no possible outcome that was going to make everyone happy. Despite the electoral college landslide, President-Elect Obama will enter a country more ideologically divided than any other time in recent history. This election, these campaigns and these candidates brought out the absolute worst in people, both intentionally and not. Both campaigns have slung accusations at each other that have been misleading at best and outright lies at worst. A sample:

-         Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. Hawaii became a US state in 1959. As far as the law is concerned, via the 14^th Amendment of the Constitution, that makes him a natural-born citizen, and eligible to hold the office of the presidency, despite his father being a Kenyan citizen. Not often mentioned during this campaign was John McCain’s citizenship status, which could just as easily been the subject of partisan screaming. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 when it was under US control. Why wasn’t this brought up? Because it does not affect his citizenship. A law passed in 1937 and legally applied to all prior births in the US-controlled area granted citizenship to anyone born there, not to mention the fact that both of McCain’s parents were citizens, granting him citizenship that way. Neither one is an issue.

 -         Barack Obama is not a Muslim. Nor does it matter if he is a Muslim. We all know when and why Muslim became a dirty word in this country, and it’s painfully unfair to all Muslim-Americans who want the exact same things that anyone else does. Like anything else – conservatives, liberals, Democrats, Republicans, members of every possible religious faith, Red Sox fans and Yankees fans – the craziest members are the ones that find the reason and means to shout louder than everyone else, and ruin it for the rest of us. This country has a long history rooted in religion, but not just one. The Pilgrims, the founders of this country we all take such great pride in? They left England because the Church of England had an interpretation of the Bible that they found far too lenient. From them Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson and others all left Massachusetts for religious intolerance to form Rhode Island. Utah was founded when Mormon pioneers fled religious intolerance in the Midwest. All these groups have now reconciled and integrated back into the rest of the country. When are we going to allow Muslims to do the same? 

-         John McCain is not George W. Bush. He earned his maverick status through the early and mid-90s, breaking with his party and building a reputation for work across party lines. More recently in his career, he has moved into a more traditional conservative position, even boasting about 90% agreement with the Bush Administration. These two claims proved difficult if not impossible to reconcile. 

-         Barack Obama is not a socialist. Or a Marxist. Or a communist. The tax reform he’s proposing does something that has significant precedent in the US. Because of the massive economic struggle America now faces, the market is reacting by raising the prices on a lot of goods, causing the basic cost of living to rise. Average wages, however, have not risen at the same rate, creating a pretty clear discrepancy and issue. Obama’s plan does “spread the wealth” to a certain extent, but the increases to individuals making over $250,000 a year should not be anything that creates the sort of pinch those making significantly less than that are starting to feel. The basic premise behind the tax changes is that for those Americans who have been able to realize their American Dream and become profitable because of it, they will now be called to give something back to those who are still struggling to do so. Considering that many of the people in those upper echelons who will get a tax increase made their money providing goods and services to those who will get the decrease (meaning the lower group gave the wealth to the upper group), this doesn’t really seem like all that radical an idea. It’s also no designed to “level the playing field.” No single tax break, unless it was truly extreme, would ever be able to moderate the wealth of citizens across the board. That would be dangerous, outrageous and would never, ever get through any governing body. 

-         Barack Obama is as much a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer as John McCain. Bill Ayers, Rashid Khalidi, Jeremiah Wright, Charles Keating, John Hagee, Sarah Palin, Tony Rezko.. Everyone has skeletons. Some of them are not nearly as big a deal as anyone thinks, and neither candidate is as close to any of them as the other would have you believe. 

What has been most disturbing to me is that since the numbers started coming in, the outpouring of hate has been tremendous. I thought it reached a fever pitch somewhere in late September, when the crap being shouted at rallies for either side was stepping way over the line. The one rational thing it tells us is how painfully divided this country is. You need look no further than McCain’s own supporters booing him when he announced he had called to congratulate Obama; posts on forums all over the web are starting to bring out the crazies (Fox News wins the award for the first mainstream website to have a commenter suggest that the President-Elect ought to share something else in common with JFK… I’m sure you can figure out what). There is no doubt that Barack Obama has his work cut out for him starting January 21^st, but look at it this way. In 20 months, a little more than a year and a half, he won over half the country. He now has four years to win over the other half. 

Here’s hoping… good luck.