What's Wrong with America Today

By Jacob Coate on September 3, 2013
Yesterday I encountered what’s wrong with America today. In an attempt to protect the anonymity of all parties involved, I’m precluded from mentioning where I was at the time of this event but let me assure you, I was, for once, minding my own business. So, there I was, minding my own business, when an old acquaintance asked me how school was going, where I was working, etc. I told him that school was going well and that I had landed a job at the Ohio Statehouse as a page for the Republican caucus. My acquaintance (Who, for the sake of rhetoric, I will now refer to as stupid-face. Nah, just kidding–let’s go with Ronald) asked me what it was like working for a bunch of racists. Initially, I was sure that he was just making a bad joke, but upon closer inspection I realized that he was being entirely serious. This incendiary question sparked a conversation that lasted nearly two hours, so for the sake of brevity I’ll just give you the highlight reel. Throughout the course of the conversation (calling it a debate would be doing him a service he wouldn’t deserve), Ronald said the following statements:
  • The Tea Party is a bunch of racist old white people and an entirely astro-turf movement designed to disenfranchise African Americans.
  • The Republican party is constantly and openly attempting to disenfranchise African Americans through racist legislation and policies because they know that if black people are allowed to vote they’ll lose all future elections.
  • It is impossible to be a capitalist and a Christian, and Jesus would disapprove of modern-day Republicans.
  • The Capitalist system is evil at its core and even though he himself works at a law firm, he wishes he could just leave the whole thing behind (it was at this time that I offered to write him a glowing letter of resignation if he thought it would help his moral quandary in the slightest).
  • Conservatives hate intelligence.
  • Conservatives are afraid of college and education in general.
  • Benghazi wasn’t a big deal because “not enough people died.”
Keep in mind that the above list is a very brief snapshot of the entire conversation, and while I could go into greater detail and breadth, I believe I’ve made my point. I am an individual who truly believes in not only our Republic but in a dialectic system of human evolution. In a Millian sort of way, I think that intelligent and honest debate is always a positive endeavor as it sharpens wit, reveals strengths and weaknesses, and allows us to learn not only from our own experiences but from others’ as well.
However, my discussion with Ronald did none of those things. In fact, all it did was demonstrate what’s wrong with politics in America today. Demonization of opposing views, logical fallacies a mile long, and open and shameless appeal to demagoguery. When those on the right resort to calling those on the left communists and faithless heathens, and when those on the left resort to calling those on the right heartless, racist, women-haters, we’re not going to get anywhere productive. It is people like Ronald who perpetuate this sort of partisan warfare; in fact, at one point in the conversation I mentioned that President Obama had no right to politicize national tragedies, to which Ronald said, “Why, the black president getting a little too uppity for you?” It was then and there that I realized that there’s really only one way to deal with blind bigotry and partisanship. My first thought, of course, was to just walk away, but then I realized that that’s exactly what people like Ronald want. They want to scream their nonsense from the rooftops, and they believe if they call you enough names they’ll get you to run away and then they’ve won. No, the answer to their type of verbal warfare involves a great deal more perseverance. It is necessary that those of us who are informed, open-minded, and logical follow these people down the proverbial rabbit hole and drag them kicking and screaming into the cold hard light of facts. And then when you have trounced them (preferably in front of an audience, the bigger the better) and exposed them for the intellectually-feeble hate mongers that they are, you can let them crawl back into their partisan trench. Will you have changed their mind? Nope. But they’ll be less likely to harass people, you’ll hopefully have taught them an important lesson in accountability, and you’ll have done your country a great service.

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