I love how anytime Americans vocally criticize the policies of their own country, many denounce them as Un-American. As polls show time and time again that people of all political stripes want higher taxes on the very wealthy and many people feeling that the system is rigged, we have Eric Cantor (R-VT) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) and several other Republicans using simple and repetitive rhetoric to convince people they are a mob of antisocial trust fund kids who are dividing America. As they sing their jingle of “Americans are turning Against Other Americans.”
I can rest assured that those who see the world through Fox News glasses will simply believe what they say. But when one revisits history and one will find that anytime people question the status quo of a nation, those who benefit from the status quo often question the challengers’ patriotism. And the “status-quo” is not always right; i.e., Slavery, Jim Crow, denying women the right to vote, child labor, domestic violence, etc. Imagine if we did not question those things? Should Blacks have simply been thankful that American viewed at 3/5 of a person for a period of time? Should women have been grateful that government limited the size of whatever object they were beaten with to be no thicker than their abusers’ thumbs?
When we look back on the civil rights movement now, I think most Americans are quite proud of the fact that many stood up against racial, and eventually, gender inequality. But at the time they were seen as rabble rousers and many accused Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a Communist and when he was assassinated some were not sad because he caused too much trouble demanding equality and opposing the Vietnam War. Many non-violent demonstrators including Dr. King himself were arrested for marching or simply sitting down at a sit-down café and his ability to mobilize a nation to take a stand against inequality earned him an FBI file.
Those who marched in the Civil Rights Movement had dogs and hoses turned on them and police brutality was the normal way to deal with them. But when we watch those videos, I believe that most people sympathize with the protestors and see that the police were way out of line. And we know that the majority of people in those protests were not violent, so we cannot just assume that the Occupy Wall Street protests are not peaceful based on the fact that there were arrests.
And isn’t there that one document that gives American Citizens the right to assemble or is that going to be on the chopping block too? The Ku Klux Klan and anti-gay groups such as Westboro Baptist Church have the right to protest even though most of us cannot stand what they represent and anti-abortion rights groups are encouraged to block access to clinics that provide abortion services. Isn’t our job to change the course of this country when we believe that it is not going in the direction we believe it should be? Should the millions under- and unemployed be grateful to the non-creating “job creators” that sit on tons of money while many of us are struggling to meet our most basic need and yearning to work?
I understand that Republicans believe we need to take a different approach to resolve the economic crisis but to question the patriotism of those who want their country to be a place where success is not only rewarded but the opportunity of success is available to everyone is despicable and in my opinion, very Un-American.
But I have an idea; if the big banks continue to screw people over again and end up in trouble, I do not believe that the lower class and the quickly dwindling middle class should have to bail out the rich. TARP money came from all taxpayers, but since the 99% of us pay a higher tax rate we did most of the bailing out. Next time, the 1% should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and bail themselves out. That will certainly reshape the debate, won’t it?
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