Blatantly Oblivious!

So here we are, a week after the 'landslide' election in which Republican's took control of the House and it's become quite frustrating to hear hundreds of different commentaries on why the elections turned out the way they did. Nearly every political debate, from immigration to Don't Ask Don't Tell to President Obama to the Ground Zero mosque to gay marriage, over the past few months has all been fueled by bigotry and racism. This ignorance and intolerance is what was really voting in the booths last Tuesday, and to ignore this and pretend differently only encourages those who contribute to this train of thought.

It may not be your father's bigotry - there haven't been lynchings, segregated buses or bitter white men in flowing white robes burning crosses in yards, and even violent acts against gay men are generally universally condemned by both the Left and Right.

No, the KKK has been replaced by the disenchanted, unemployed Tea Party member who is quick to complain about the jobs that 'Mexicans' take, despite the fact that the vast majortiy of these jobs most American-born citizens consider to be beneath them. Of course in the close-minded world of a back-seat bigot, Mexican is a term used in refernce to any brown person south of the border, even if that means going as far south as Central or South America.

The new racist automatically assumes that every Muslim person in the world, no matter if they were born in Iran or Ohio, was bred to be a terrorist. And I'm sure most of them would end up being terrorists if enough ignorant people come into power and continue to promote and act upon their narrow world view. I've never understood how even the most simple person can't recall what we all learned during our elementary recess breaks - nobody likes a bully.

Bigots now hide behind their Bibles, promoting their homophobic intolerance as the word of God, while conveniently over-looking thier own sins as called out in the same book. While perhaps not committing the acts of violence themselves, they cast a net of permission amongst their children and others less restrained, which does in turn lead to acts of violence and bullying which, if not directly responsible for murder may frequently push the victim towards horrific self-destructive acts.

And somehow these bigots can get up on a stage, preach and praise their prejudices and feel that just because they haven't thrown a rock that they can simultaneously claim not to be intolertant. Of course they will claim not to be racist or homophobic - everyone universally recognizes that these are terms to describe bad people. However just because you claim to not be something does not absolve you of your sin anymore than the people who used to promote the same messages through violence.