I’ll be honest: some Americans scare the crap out of me.
I was not born in this country. My family immigrated to the U.S. from India when I was about three months old. I’ve spent my entire life thus far feeling grateful for having been raised in the U.S. instead of in India for numerous reasons (better educational opportunities! A functional, secular democracy! More progressive attitudes towards women!). Even today, in the age of Tea-Party lunatics and the Rush Limbaugh school of hateful ignorance, I am grateful to be a U.S. citizen. I know, from having had exposure to foreign countries, including India, that life can be a lot worse than it is for many or most Americans.
So don’t brand me as some ungrateful, unpatriotic foreigner when I tell you that there are ultra-conservatives all over America whose disgustingly backwards views about foreigners, politics, President Obama, and the so-called “unique American culture” should instill fear into the hearts of any sane person.
Earlier today, I read a book by John Avlon, senior political columnist from TheDailyBeast.com, entitled Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America. I won’t say that this book shouldn’t be taken with a grain of salt, because it absolutely should (Keith Olbermann is described as a Wingnut representative of the Left, for instance), but it essentially illustrates the extreme, misguided opinions promoted by conservative and liberal talking heads on the fringes of both viewpoints. Does it surprise anyone that the majority of Wingnuts appear to be conservative? While the right boasts Wingnuts so prolific and omnipresent as Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea-Partiers (or Tea-Baggers, if you prefer to call them as such), the Birthers, the Three-Percenters, the Oath-Keepers, the Truthers, and the Bible-thumping “Baby Killer” shouters, the only left Wingnut that Avlon can come up with is the relatively harmless, albeit impassioned, Olbermann. Again, are you surprised? I’m not.
The unfortunate reality is that there are millions of very vocal conservatives all over America who know nothing--I repeat, nothing--about politics beyond what they hear on Limbaugh’s extremely popular radio show and what they see on Fox News Channel. If you didn’t have any expertise on a subject other than the talking points that wash over your American Idol-obsessed brain for thirty seconds a day, wouldn’t you think, “Hey, I don’t know much about that. Maybe I shouldn’t talk about it in public and risk making myself look like an idiot.” I sure would. Unfortunately, such reasoning has not entered the minds of the conservative lunatics who have rallied against President Obama since his election in 2008, and those who have most recently congregated to protest the health care reform legislation passed by Congress last Sunday evening. Polls show that the average American devotes very little time and energy to learning about current events. But this doesn’t stop certain average Americans from having the opinion that President Obama is a Communist Muslim who was born in Kenya, or that socialized medicine will result from the current health care legislation.
Some Americans appear to be unclear on a few important facts. First, that President Obama is not pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage. There appears to be some misunderstanding on the part of, for example, a certain pastor in South Carolina, who, on November 5, 2008, advised his parishioners to refrain from taking communion if they had voted for President Obama, citing the president-elect’s “pro-abortion” views as being in violation of the Bible. Second, the fact that President Obama is not a Muslim (and why exactly would it matter if he was?) Please refer to the senior citizen who was featured at a 2008 McCain rally, shrieking about how Obama is a Muslim who sides with the terrorists (also, just for yuks, observe as a very embarrassed McCain tries to shut her up). President Obama is not a Muslim. Oh, and just so you know, Muslims aren’t evil. Third, the fact that the current administration is not behaving in a way that is un-Constitutional or in violation of human rights. You might not think that the health care reform legislation is going to improve the quality of health care administration, or that the current legislation is really necessary. However, if you oppose the legislation on the grounds that you believe it’s a sign of “big government take-over that will violate individual human rights”, where were you during the Bush administration? You’ve clearly never heard of the Patriot Act, which allowed the Attorney General to detain any foreign-born American on any arbitrary “secret evidence”, sometimes for months on end, without a trial. That didn’t bother you, but legislation that requires every American to purchase health insurance does? And by the way, why don’t you take a break from Facebook-ing (which Americans spend, on average, at least five times as much time on as they do on looking up current events and news) and Google “violation of human rights” and read about violation of human rights that occurs throughout the world, far greater in severity than a simple mandate to purchase health insurance?
The elephant in the room is this: there is a large majority of white, conservative Americans who are uncomfortable with an administration led by a black man. This translates into a depressing series of misconceptions: the government is going to force you to give all your money to poor black people, President Obama is the Anti-Christ (according to a certain conservative, Christian faction in Southern California, the Bible states that the Anti-Christ will come from Africa, and, funnily enough, is named Barack!), and President Obama hates all white people and loves the terrorists, just to name a few. White minority politics terrify fringe lunatics: if whites aren’t represented in top-level government positions, who is going to make sure that white people stay in power? What’s going to stop the minorities from taking over and subjugating the white people? Subjugation sucks, right? Never mind the fact that this country was established through white subjugation of the natives, and made to flourish via the subjugation, rape, and abuse of African slaves. But all of that is besides the point: the point is, having a black President really does not mean that white people are going to be relegated to second-class citizen status. Really.
The ever-nauseating Sarah Palin recently spoke at a campaign event for Senator McCain, who is up for re-election in November. Palin exalted the Tea Party movement, calling it a “beautiful” movement that captures the heart of America, and stated that the perceived violence and hatred of the conservative party in response to the passage of the health care legislation is a “distracting” side issue (I wonder if she realizes that the children of members of Congress who voted in favor of the legislation are being threatened? Or that the map she kindly posted on her Twitter page that showed where these members of Congress lived with rifle cross-hair images marking the spots probably helped the lunatics who have thrown bricks through Congress members’ windows and cut off the gas pipe-lines to their homes?). She also ranted about how the American people have nothing to apologize for. But she’s wrong: the American people have a lot to apologize for. Fringe lunatics who shout racial and ethnic slurs at Congressmen on Capitol Hill. Pastors, priests, and community leaders who make racist remarks about the President and “pray for his death” (I didn’t make this up.) The fact that the majority of the world considers the United States to be the biggest threat against world peace, according to Noam Chomsky in Imperial Ambitions. Vigilante Americans who hover at the Mexican border with rifles, shooting at people attempting to cross the border into the U.S. The threats against President Obama’s life, which the Secret Service has indicated is the largest number of threats against any president in U.S. history (coincidence?). The many acts of violence enacted against Muslims and Sikhs after 9/11. As Americans, we should be embarrassed by our ignorance, our hatred, our susceptibility to misinformation and the influence of fringe lunatics.
Sorry, Sarah, but there are a lot of things that are wrong with this country. Aside from the obvious fringe lunatics, there are the people who insist that the “unique American culture” is in jeopardy as a result of the influx of immigrants to the U.S. Oh, I’m sorry, by “unique American culture”, do you mean, “white majority comprised of white people who immigrated to the U.S. a few generations ago from a variety of European countries”? For instance, I was asked by one of my patients if I planned on taking my American medical education back to “my country” once I was finished studying. And yes, he did mean to be derogatory. And no, he was not asking out of genuine ignorance. I found it interesting that, in my 22 years, I have managed to achieve more academically, professionally, personally, and in terms of community service and activism, using the educational and community resources provided by “my country” (which IS the United States, since I AM A U.S. CITIZEN!) than this man has achieved in his 62 years. So how dare he insinuate that I belong to this country any less than he does? I use this anecdote as an example of the stereotypical, improperly-informed American who attempts to articulate on opinions of which he knows little to nothing. You want to keep people out of this country because of their skin color, or their country of origin? Why don’t you worry about the ignorant lunatics and morons in your own country who are busy making America look bad to itself and to the rest of the world?
A little truth goes a long way. Unfortunately, there are plenty of Americans who can’t be bothered with truth. Lies and catch-phrases spouted from the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and, of course, Sarah Palin, are so much easier to comprehend. Reason, logic, and facts don’t stand a chance against such fringe lunacy. And, for anyone who cares about taking a rational approach to politics and social reform, that’s a scary thought.
