Why the New Republican Party Should Scare Us

There's a great book titled "What's the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America" and I think everyone should read it. To summarize, it asks the question: why does Kansas (a middle-class state through and through) vote for a party that continuously pushes policies that favor the rich? And the answer, simply enough, is in the subtitle -- because the GOP has won their hearts, and that was enough, those people never consulted their brains.
There are things the democrats do that worry me, but none of it scares me. However, much of what the GOP stands for today sends shivers down my spine when it isn't making me outright angry.
Most of it concerns domestic policy, and the economic and cultural arguments overlap in more places than not. Ever since Reagonomics and the trickle-down theory of economics, while the GOP may have made middle-class Americans believe that they have their best interests in mind, in reality Republicans have aggressively pushed for the interests of the rich. The middle class has shrunk as wealth becomes more and more concentrated in the upper 5%. While unemployment nears 10%, Wall Street executives got bonuses and gold parachutes. The Republican party controlled Congress for most of the Reagan years, and then from 1994 to 2006. That's a fact. Can't argue otherwise.
People say America is full of rugged individualists, of men and women who pulled themselves up with their own bootstraps. I don't disagree. But that's half the story, if even that. America has always been a kind and generous nation. We help those in need because we've, for the most part, had the humility and courage to admit that no matter how hard we may have worked, there was always someone who helped us along the way. There are no true single success stories. Magazine stories and movies may create these characters, but their fiction. Behind every man or woman who chased and caught the American dream is a host of individuals who lent a helping hand, an encouraging word, a little loan to cover next month. We've always looked after each other. We've always been our brother's keeper.
But I don't hear that from Republicans today. I don't hear generosity or compassion. I hear blaming, ultimatums and domesday theories. Mostly, I hear words meant to instill fear and contempt.
Republicans recently blocked the Dream Act. The bill is meant to give young people who are living in the US illegally a path towards citizenship. If they sign up for the military and serve, they'll be granted citizenship and then the opportunity to attend college. These young people not only want to be citizens, they also want to fight for this country. Personally, even though I wholeheartedly agree with this bill, I have a cynical reaction to it. This is the only land these young people have ever known, they speak our language, and yet the only way they can legitimize their existence here is to join the military and put themselves in harms way. It eerily resembles slaves fighting in the Revolutionary War, with citizenship and rights as their guarantee at the end. I think we're all ashamed of that part of our nation's history. And yet, the Dream Act is a credible method of fixing the immigration issue, adding to the tax payer base, but most importantly, doing the common and decent thing for these young people who have grown up in this land, and are no less American than you or I save a piece of paper that says so. The Department of Defense, and Defense Secretary Gates (a Republican), has given this bill it's full endorsement. The Republican party, on the other hand, has espoused a view that these young people are uninvited guests, and worse, criminals.

I'm left with the feeling that the GOP wants us to view these people as undeserving, as inferior. The use catch phrases like "anchor babies" and "drug mules" that are meant to instill fear and distrust. It stirs our emotions and plays our heartstrings. They do it so well, people in Kansas forget to think with their heads.

I think it's time we remember who we really are, what we really are. The Republicans of today love to through out words like socialism, communism, the redistribution of wealth. "Why are you going to help these people? You work hard! They are lazy, and they're stealing your jobs too! Why would you do anything for someone who won't do for themselves? All they want is for you to give give give, so they can take take take!"
Except these young people are willing to enlist, to risk life and limb. That hardly sounds like a selfish tick. I wonder, how many of these Republicans enlisted? I wonder, how many of them have been willing to give so much for a shot at the American dream? I wonder how many of them opened their eyes to stack full of chips, and never really knew what it meant to gamble with money you didn't have today, in hopes you could win enough to make a life for yourself tomorrow.

I think we need to start treating people we don't know like people we do. They're no different, really. You see, they're people too, we just haven't met them yet. America has always been a land of opportunity, of freedom, of understanding, of progress, of compassion. We're the most successful experiment in social relations the world has ever seen. We're a nation of different creeds and color. In no other place on earth in its history has such a diverse people as ourselves been willing to rise up together, to pull one another up.

The Republican party wants to tell you who we are different. I think we'd be better off noticing the ways we're alike. We've been doing that for a long time. I think it would be a bad idea to stop now.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that he envisioned a day when his children wouldn't be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. Those holds just a much truth today as they did that day in Washington.