I've heard many Republicans lay claim that whenever they criticize President Barack Obama, they're called a racist. They then say something along the lines of, "Here I thought that liberals and Democrats were supposed to be the party of acceptance, diversity and open-mindedness. I guess that's not the case when someone disagrees with them."
I can't speak for everyone (figuratively or literally - I'm exhausted from just thinking about doing that in the literal sense), but the only time I really question if a person dislikes the president because of his skin color is when they show a fear and hatred toward him and don't provide any reason as to why this is.
If a person told me he or she couldn't stand the president and then talked about him not closing Guantanamo, compromising on FISA and the Patriot Act, not fighting harder for a public option in his healthcare bill, not ending the war in Afghanistan quick enough, not being tougher on gun laws, etc., then I'd be more understanding on the matter. However, over 90% of the time, that isn't the case. When I hear a person talking in such an angry manner toward the president, what usually spews forth from their lips are nothing but slogans, talking points and debunked claims. Granted, they may genuinely believe these slogans, talking points and myths. However, even after I present them evidence to the contrary, they still believe whatever it was they told me. In cases like that, I have to seriously wonder what the actual reasons are behind despising the man so much, and as I've come to learn, many people hide behind lies to deny themselves and others what they don't want known.
This reminds me of just a recent example, where a woman I know posted a status on Facebook which talked about how, while she was on Medicaid and believed in gays' rights, she's a Republican and will be voting for Romney. Under the Romney/Ryan plan, significant cuts would be made to Medicaid and both have, at one point or another, stated that they believe in adding an amendment to the Constitution to ban gay marriage. I then asked a good friend of mine about her status, for it perplexed me. He knows her quite well and said, "The real reason is she told me that she'd never vote for a black guy."
While we can't claim with any validity whatsoever that one group of people or another is overwhelmingly racist, we also can't deny that racism still exists and plays a factor in some's thinking as well as voting.
I can't speak for everyone (figuratively or literally - I'm exhausted from just thinking about doing that in the literal sense), but the only time I really question if a person dislikes the president because of his skin color is when they show a fear and hatred toward him and don't provide any reason as to why this is.
If a person told me he or she couldn't stand the president and then talked about him not closing Guantanamo, compromising on FISA and the Patriot Act, not fighting harder for a public option in his healthcare bill, not ending the war in Afghanistan quick enough, not being tougher on gun laws, etc., then I'd be more understanding on the matter. However, over 90% of the time, that isn't the case. When I hear a person talking in such an angry manner toward the president, what usually spews forth from their lips are nothing but slogans, talking points and debunked claims. Granted, they may genuinely believe these slogans, talking points and myths. However, even after I present them evidence to the contrary, they still believe whatever it was they told me. In cases like that, I have to seriously wonder what the actual reasons are behind despising the man so much, and as I've come to learn, many people hide behind lies to deny themselves and others what they don't want known.
This reminds me of just a recent example, where a woman I know posted a status on Facebook which talked about how, while she was on Medicaid and believed in gays' rights, she's a Republican and will be voting for Romney. Under the Romney/Ryan plan, significant cuts would be made to Medicaid and both have, at one point or another, stated that they believe in adding an amendment to the Constitution to ban gay marriage. I then asked a good friend of mine about her status, for it perplexed me. He knows her quite well and said, "The real reason is she told me that she'd never vote for a black guy."
While we can't claim with any validity whatsoever that one group of people or another is overwhelmingly racist, we also can't deny that racism still exists and plays a factor in some's thinking as well as voting.
Comments
Post a Comment