Thursday, June 2, 2016

Guardrail # 6 - tolerance



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Ok, let's fess up -  Guardrail #6 was never all that securely in place within the GOP, a party that's long held the original reading of the Constitution to be the only way to truly revere our nation's founding document.  Sorry - that means the only folks who actually matter are white landowners with a certain level of wealth.  And are male.  

Did anyone really think the GOP meant it when they included the following in their 1980 party platform?  Seriously??  "The truths we hold and the values we share affirm that no individual should be victimized by unfair discrimination because of race, sex, advanced age, physical handicap, difference of national origin or religion, or economic circumstance.”

Yeah, right.

Trump Ascending is simply the clearest statement that what the GOP base means by wanting America to be great again is for white privilege to go back to being invisible & pervasive.  

As for calling out Trump on his slams, slurs & insults, no less than former Bush spokesman Ari Fleisher blew it off as “a Northeastern look down your nose at other people who are different …. disdain for the voters.”  Calling Trump out on his litany of name calling, race baiting, rampant misogyny reflects poorly on his critics, labels them hapless elitists?  How have the once morally mighty fallen.


I was 12 when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed.  I recall Senate Minority Leader Evertt Dirksen (a hero of mine) urging fellow Republicans to end their filibuster of the legislation, saying "The time has come for equal of opportunity in … government, in education, and in employment. It will not be stayed or denied. It is here.”  Brave words.  


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Like others in my generation - least outside of the South & other racial hotbeds - that the expectation of inequality would vanish over the coming years.  It has changed, but not for the better.  

While many celebrated Barack Obama's election as an inescapable sign that we'd turned a toxic corner, it had the opposite effect on people who'd felt suppressed & minimalized for generations - many since 1865; who said to themselves, their families, friends, communities, "No more."  

State legislatures started passing Voter ID laws to "protect" against abuses that could have happened but actually never did.  They started whittling at issues like abortion & even birth control,they passed "Stand Your Ground" laws that extended the long-established Castle Doctrine to wherever you happened to be.  

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All within eight years.  Oh, but it wasn't related to Obama's election.  Righhhhhht...

Increasing diversity lead to deepened hostility, distrust & hair triggers.

Instead of more tolerance, we face less.  People who feel they were left behind have had enough & they are not going to take it any more.  One thing is clear - there are a lot of Americans who want women back in the kitchen, for blacks to know their place, for English to be the only language, for gays & lesbians to go back in the damn closet.


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It feels counter-intuitive to me, but studies have apparently shown that increases in ethnic diversity actually leads to some bad outcomes, including growing distrust, increased isolation within established groups, less out reach & decreased volunteerism/charitable giving.  Communities weaken, norms change, greater disagreements arise about what is the norm & what is aberrant.  

Trump ballyhoos that Mexicans love him, that Muslims will rush to his support, that minorities will see in him a savior who will protect them from people out to do them harm.  He says all that & much more.  But his base knows what he means by wanting to make America great again.  And it has a lot more to do with restoring our lily white past than celebrating a rainbow coalition.


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Tolerance - gone.  I can't say it buckled because of the GOP, but due to a lack in our human nature.  It's still gone & its absence still has repercussions.

One last guardrail to go.

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