Saturday, June 20, 2015

ORIGINATION OF CURRENT SOCIAL UGLINESS

One big question I have is; “Where is all of this ugliness in our society coming from?” After a slowly growing trend toward humanization, we have seen what appears to be a great reversal. Stephen Pinker in his book, The Better Angels of our Nature (2011), documents this as a continuation of a century’s long trend. This trend seems to have a temporary setback in our country. As President Obama has repeatedly said, other developing nations do not have this level of violence. Over the past two years, we have seen 64 mass killings in the United States and 11,000 gun deaths last year alone. We have seen public school funding decimated, and school re-segregated as only one of many signs of a growing surge in racism. Why us? What has happened in our society that is not happening in other societies? I think I know, and the reason is ugly. A gun carrying crazy man gunned down nine black people in a church. It may sound crazy, but the reason is that 50 years ago President Lyndon Johnson signed civil right legislations into law in 1964. Yes, the shooter, Dylann Foot, is a product of changes in the political landscape of that time. When Johnston, a Texan by birth, signed the legislation, he knew he was going to change the political landscape. Racist made up the Democratic Party in the deep or plantation south; in fact, collective racism was the only glue that held that party together at the time. The altruism of the Democratic Party in the Northern region of the United States was there for a few members but was not evident in the South, which meant that the only political option open was the Republican Party. The racists Democrats flocked to that party in droves, of course taking their racist ideology with them. Excesses of big trusts, such as the railroad and mining industry had violated the sensibilities of the American people that resulted in a shift from conservatism to progressivism. The shift occurred first within the Republican Party and then the shift was to membership in the Democratic Party. Consequently, this shift decimated the Republican Party making its leadership desperate for the numbers of members they needed to conserve power. Also, the shift weakened the Democratic Party in the South. Said another way, the Republican Party controlled the South as it is today. Republican Party control of the South has had consequences that now extend to gun ownership. As the sting of racism dwindles, still desperate for membership, the Republican Party leadership looks for recruits wherever they can find them. It just so happens that twisted distortion of second amendments rights related to gun ownership falls into that category along with a wide and diverse collection of such things as abortion, religious rights, same sex marriage, climate change, use of fossil fuels, hate of government, and other crazy things including “no more taxes”. I sincerely believe the bloodshed in that black church was a direct consequence of Republican Party recruitment efforts. Dylann Foot is no more a Republican than he is a Democrat, but he is clearly a product of our times. He is a nitwit guided what he receives daily from the media. The RNC fills the media with racist innuendos such as voter suppression, Democrats are coming to take your guns, Obama is black so cannot have an American birth certificate, is a Muslim, voter suppression aimed at minorities. Republican control of legislation leads to gerrymandering legislative district to give minority Republicans perpetual control of government, corruption of the Supreme Court and federal courts, the Hastert Rule, Republican candidates reluctances to refer to the church shoot as racist motivated, among other things. Foot may not know how to tie his shoes, but he knows he should hate black people and he has a right to have a big gun just as he knows what car insurance, laundry soap, or toothpaste he should buy. When I step back and look at those nine dead people, I clearly see the fruits of GOP member recruitment by RNC chairperson, Reince Priebus. He is the one who has that blood on his hands. The Republican Party recruitment is moving us away from our humanization trend in the United States. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

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