Back in 2000, before Republicans had ruined the economy, bankrupted the government, lost two wars, let a huge terror attack occur and an American city drown, they could afford to be, well, civilized. All that fake talk of “Armies of Compassion” and whatnot has long since dropped by the wayside nowadays, and although Hitlerian scapegoating of minorities does offer some short-term political benefits, it isn’t the smartest strategy long term, unless they really do plan to end democracy as we know it in favor of establishing a racist dictatorship. On a day when we find that a Muslim cab driver in NY was slashed in a racially-motivated hate crime and a mosque in the dusty hellhole of Madera, CA was vandalized by a white supremacist group, it’s pretty silly to pretend that what’s happening on the right over Cordoba House has much to do with “insensitivity” on the part of the center’s backers, and everything to do with craven race baiting on the right.
Ever since they lost their legitimacy eight ways to Sunday, thanks to their bumbling “Leader,” George Bush, the right wing has turned to, or more accurately, on, all sorts of people, and knock me over with a feather, all the demonized groups happen to be the same ones Hitler went after: gays, immigrants, foreigners, etc. The right still cries crocodile tears for that one time somebody compared Bush to the Nazis, despite the fact that his policies of aggressive wars, militant nationalism, hostility to free speech, extrajudicial imprisonment, appeals to lost honor, favoring corporations, and on and on, were the exact same policies of the Fuhrer. Perhaps worried about the obviousness of such plain facts, obese basement-dweller and wingnut welfare queen Jonah Goldberg hastily penned something called “Liberal Fascism,” which sought to “prove” that conservatives weren’t fascists, even though they, well, acted like them.
I confess I had a hard time at first seeing this coming; when my Fox and Limbaugh-addled father started spouting off about “Immigrants,” which in his less measured terms meant Mexicans, it seemed so kooky, deranged, and embarrassing that I though it was the last gasps of a dying political movement, relegated to race-baiting because it was flat out of material. After all, this was in the mid-2000′s, where everyone (white) who was anyone had Mexican servants easing their lives by tending their children, mowing their lawns, cleaning their houses, and hanging their drywall. A form of slavery had been quietly reintroduced in America, to the great advantage of many, and now these nincompoops were going to screw things up by demonizing the slaves? Talk about killing the golden goose.
Fast forward to now, when America has been treated to yet another Republican collapse of the economy, which always has the salutary effect (for them) of making Americans desperate enough to give failed Republicans a second look. People afraid for their jobs and livelihoods don’t care about the environment, their fellow citizens, or, it seems, not looking like racist knuckle-draggers; when the facts, the law, and common sense and decency are all against you, why not pull out the white sheets and Swastikas? It worked for Hitler, after all. Thus, we’ve been treated to a veritable assembly line of concocted enemies: blacks have joined Mexicans, liberals, and gays on the McCarthyite “list” of Bad Americans, and even the grave national security risks associated with demonizing and attacking an entire religion, Muslim Americans have been added to the list. When the next terror attack inevitably occurs because of this cynical and destructive pogrom, count on Republicans to blame not themselves, but our Muslim-coddling President. Win, win, I guess.
As America slowly goes bankrupt, the wars go on and on, and we toss our Bill of Rights on the top of burning Korans, the right wing is going to have to get more and more creative to try to blame others for these unfolding disasters, but they’re clearly up to the challenge. After all, the cab driver slasher was only 21 years old, not an eightysomething relic like my dad, but he nonetheless blossomed into a bloodthirsty, Crusades-era racist under the careful tutelage of charlatans like Glenn Beck et al. Racism, bigotry, and hate-filled violence aren’t born into humans; as the South Pacific song goes, “You Have To Be Carefully Taught.” Enter Glenn Beck with his chalkboard, and Rupert Murdoch with his billions.
Bummer for 43-year old Ahmed Sharif, though, who is recovering from his stab wounds, while the pudgy, drunken cretin who attacked him, Michael Enright, is to be tried for hate crimes. One of the signs posted at the vandalized Madera mosque was unintentionally ironic; it said, “Wake Up America, The Enemy is Here,” and it was even correctly spelled. The enemy is here, all right, and it’s got another election to steal. Expect the worst. You’ll never be disappointed.