I thought I had seen the height of hatred and the quest to get someone at any cost with the election of President Bill Clinton in 1992, but the election of President Obama has unleashed unprecedented levels of insane hatred.
The irrational hated is even more then the blatant racism that we are getting from the birthers, the deathers, the 10thers and the tea baggers. Recently I read the book “The Brothers Reuther and the Story of the UAW” by Victor G. Reuther. Both he and his brother Walter experienced a little of that hatred.
Both survived assassination attempts, and the assassins was never brought to justice. However, in the book I came across an excerpt from a 1961 speech by President John F. Kennedy where he talked about hatemongers. He experienced his share of death threats and hatred, and we know what it led to.
In critical periods there have always been those on the fringe of our society who have sought to escape their own responsibility by finding a simple solution, an appealing solution or a convenient scapegoat…They look suspiciously at their neighbors and their leader. They call for a “man on horseback” because they do not trust the people. They find treason in our churches, in our highest court…They equate the Democratic Party with the welfare state, the welfare state with socialism, socialism with communism. Let our patriotism be reflected in the creation of confidence in one another, rather than in crusades of suspicion - above all, let us remember, however serious the outlook, however harsh the task, the one great irreversible trend in history of world is on the side of liberty.
I have not seen this level of hatred and anti-government rhetoric since the mid-1990’s, but that ended with the indictment of Timothy McVeigh for the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building back in 1995. How many people have to be killed and injured because of the hatred whipped up by the likes of limbaugh, beck, malkin and coulter?
The Michigan Militia is back.
The tea baggers are even going after children. You will recall the New Jersey elementary school kids who sang a song during Black History Month celebrating the election of the first black U.S. President. The school received death threats, and even a school that had a similar sounding name received death threats.
Imagine, celebrating a U.S. President. Talk about indoctrination. Don’t we have a holiday in February celebrating Presidents? If you want to see indoctrination, check out this worship of George Bush.
Let’s hope this irrational hatred ends before it’s ended with an event like the Oklahoma City bombing.
