The Face of Hate

We stand on the precipice of the passage of one of the most influential pieces of social legislation passed in the United States since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society or even Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. President Barrack Obama's health care reform package is set to be voted on in the House of Representatives as soon as tomorrow and, through the legislative technique of deem and pass, will be on his desk to be signed in the next calendar week. President Obama even addressed the House Democratic Caucus today in a speech that quoted Abraham Lincoln and has been described as his "most emotional" to date. Progress, finally some progress, is within reach.

And there stand the Tea Party.

A mass protest outside the Capitol building brought out hundreds of Tea Party activists to demonstrate while the Democratic caucus arrived for the speech. But, behold, their cries and slogans of "Hands off my health care" were not ringing in the air today. They roared, an angry, unintelligible mass and from the crowd some new catchphrases sprang into the air. Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights hero most well known for his prominence in the Selma to Montgomery marches and his address at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was called a nigger by several members of the crowd. (I unapologetically refuse to censor that word. Blocking out, hiding away from the two g's in the middle of it is just spineless and gives this term of hate more power.) And Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a staunch supporter of civil rights, though specifically lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual rights, and the second openly gay member of the House, was called a faggot by members of the crowd.

I actually cried when I read this story the first time. It reviled me so much to know that there were people so ignorant out there that they dismiss elected leaders on the basis of their race or sexuality that it was almost paralyzing. I just, the shock! knowing that hate was out there, so unashamed, so vulgar and unquestionably present. I don't know, for some reason, it didn't really, sink in? I suppose? I have no idea. It was just overwhelming. My disgust. My pity. My I don't even know what. I simply couldn't believe it.

And the Republican Party and conservative bodies like Fox News had glorified this movement as a body concerned with the representation of conservative political thought, of representing "common sense" fiscal responsibility and theology-based ethics and social standards! But today's event, it showed their true colors. When push came to shove, when the time for the Tea Party to dig in and hold back those last few representatives from passing the legislation came, it became evident that the Tea Party's position was not about health care at all, or at least for quite a few of its members. Instead of speaking out against government influence in private business, these "activists", if that's what you can call them, they chose to share some very select hate slurs.

When it was time to show what they represented, the Tea Party let the American body politic, and the American people, know that it wasn't the bill or any of the Democratic policies that they were so vehemently against, it was the niggers and faggots behind them.

I just hope they were listening.