| Lloyd Doggett, Tim Bishop and others have had their meetings highjacked with screaming, taunts, signs, and chants. Among those outbursts is the now-common refrain, "I want my country back".
Being from Jasper, Texas, I'm particularly sensitive to folks calling out racism with no real basis in fact, but I feel firmly comfortable in saying that this is far more about race than it is any particular issue or collection of issues.
For 20 of the last 29 years a republican has held the White House. For a meaningful and substantial portion of that time repulicans held both chambers and the White House simultaneously. All of the chickens that are coming home to roost now were hatched long, long ago in an administration far, far away.
Our nation's first president of color, Barack Obama, has held office for slighty more than 6 months. During that time his administration and the Congress has advanced many issues that, in fact, return our nation's focus back to the family, back to the collective future of our nation and away from corporate interests, special interests and industries that harm middle class families.
Watch the videos, look at the crowds. It ain't exactly the great American melting pot. You see angry, white, middle age, middle class folks who feel like they are losing "their country". They don't want to talk about it. They don't want to understand. They want to scream. They want to exercise their anger. They just need the right person to blame all of the problems on.
They don't like having a person of color in the White House. They don't like having the first Hispanic nominated for the SCOTUS. They don't like immigration, illegal or otherwise. This isn't even close to being about healthcare or cap and trade. This is all about the anger in the white community finding a focal point and hammering on it.
They won't say it is about race, because it would be wrong to say so. But look at the simple, empirically verifiable facts. The ONLY person to stand up for middle class families against the tax code, big oil, big coal, HMOs and insurance companies in the last 29 years has been demonized and vilified by the very people who are the direct beneficiaries.
I didn't see this crowd out raising hell and shutting down town hall meetings when the so-called Patriot Act raped Lady Liberty and set a match to the Bill of Rights. I also didn't see this crowd out chanting "I want my country back" when Bush and Cheney tapped their phones illegally.
So don't piss on my leg and tell me it is raining. Other than certain acts of God (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc), we are dealing with the exact same issues that our country has struggled with for the prior 29 years. The only difference is that someone is paying more than lip service to the issues.
For a very large majority of this crowd, it has nothing to do with the issues and everything to do with the ethnicity of the Commander in Chief. You want honesty from your government? Start by being honest with yourself about your own motivations.
Admit that your Irish, German, English, Italian forefathers were "good" immigration and that Hispanics are "bad" immigration. Admit that you were wrong to stand aside while Bush/Cheney/Halliburton, Inc. took us, our debt, our economy and our freedoms for a ride. Admit that you let this happen through your complacency and complicity with a corrupt administration. Admit that this imagined beef about Obama's birth certificate has nothing to do with citizenship and everything to do with, "This can't really be happening" (McCain was born in the Canal Zone in Panama, idiot, where was your protest then). Admit that Al-Qaeda, not the US, knocked down the WTC.
You want "your" country back??? You are getting it back with every bill that passes in DC. You may not deserve it and you may not have done one thing to get it back, but you are getting it back, every day.
If you mean ANYTHING else, whatsoever, by "I want my country back"...just come out and say it. |
