The rehabilitation of bigotry.

It is no secret that I think both the Democratic and the Republican / T-Party / American Christian parties are failing miserably when it comes to serving the ideals that made America a place to admire. On a deeper level both have sold themselves to business and military interests and so, to me anyway, are just two slightly different wings of the same political entity. In the US there are no other politics.

But I hold a particular disdain for the Republican / T-Party / American Christian party. It isn't that I think their monetary policies are bad. (They are, but so are those of the Democrats in those rare instances where they differ.) It isn't that they blatantly serve the rich at the expense of the middle class as the poor. They do, but at least they are open about it. The Democrats are of the same group of rich but try a little hard to disguise themselves.

My problem with the RTAC is that they have made bigotry, racism, and sexism respectable once again. And somehow they have managed to do it and still avoid being seen as the party of bigots, racists, and sexists. Recently two men got thrown out of the Republican Convention for tossing peanuts at an African-American man while claiming, "This is how we feed the animals."  They were, quite rightly, immediately ejected from the Convention while Republican leaders scrambled to distance themselves from such. But how did such get into the Convention in the first place and why would they feel free to express themselves like that to a journalist? A woman attending a Mitt Romney speech claimed she just wanted to see a "real" First Lady in the White House again, someone "who looked like a first lady". This woman, nor the men mentioned before, seemed the list bit ashamed. They have found a comfortable place in the RTAC.

Worse, if anyone steps up and calls these people ugly, ignorant, bigots who shame human kind, who likely need mental health care and should certainly be kept away from children; somehow that "anyone" becomes the real bad guy. That person, one who calls out bigotry and racism for what it is, becomes the true bigot and racist. George Orwell would be astonished.

I don't really know the the rehabilitation of bigotry in our society is part of the disease that is killing the ideal that was once America, or just a symptom of a deeper malaise. But my guess, given that one of the only two political parties in America is particularly responsible, is that it is part of the disease. A disease of intolerance, ignorance, and open hypocrisy that is so far advanced that the death of this society is just shy of being a sure bet.