Hatred is a profound emotional dislike directed against individuals, entities, or ideas, and is often concomitant with feelings of anger and outright hostility that is contrary to commonly held moral rules opposed to universal hatred towards others. It is disconcerting for any human being to know for sure that another person holds intense feelings of hostility towards them, and for millions of Americans it must be distressing to learn that a segment of the population and their leaders harbor and direct such intense loathing toward them that their very survival is in jeopardy. Over the course of the past five years, Republicans and their conservative cohort have incrementally singled out every demographic in America for their special brand of abject hatred to the point that it is safe to say they truly hate every single American who is not a member of the wealthy elite.
During President Obama’s tenure in office, some journalists and pundits have correctly cited the obvious Republican war against women and minorities, and it is true Republicans are waging war against those individual groups. However, a more accurate portrayal of Republicans in 2013 is that they are in a killing frenzy and targeting more Americans than just women and minorities. The very latest war “revelation” was Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman’s contention that Republicans are waging a war on the poor, and although he was not exposing anything the rest of America did not already know, his assertion, though accurate, fails to include the middle class, seniors, women, minorities, gays, children, and even the federal government as targets of the Republican war against all Americans.
A noted moral psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, recently remarked that “For the first time in our history, political parties are agglomerations of personality styles and lifestyles,” and that in conservative’s minds it is now “You people on the other side, you’re really different from me, you live in a different way, you pray in a different way, so it’s much easier to hate those people. And that’s where we are.” Haidt was referring to Republican hatred toward Democrats and how it drives their intransigence and willingness to decimate the nation due to their intense hatred, but he misses the point. Republicans, teabaggers, and their conservative Christian base hate any American that does not submit to their way of thinking and their representatives are accommodating their hatred by lashing out at all Americans; including their rabid supporters.
If Americans took stock of the various Republican assaults in the states and Congress, they would discover that except for the rich, Republicans hate all Americans equally and assault their base with the same viciousness as they do their opposition. Indeed, just the assault on food stamps and healthcare should be a wake-up call to Southern conservatives most dependent on government assistance that the representatives they think are defending their interests are their mortal enemies. It is Republican-controlled southern states that suffer most from Republican hatred and it informs why their residents, liberals and conservatives, are losing their right to vote, decent jobs, healthcare, and access to domestic programs like food stamps, Medicaid, and soon; Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans have even openly lashed out at their most dependable voting bloc; senior citizens. The assault on food stamps, housing assistance, Meals on Wheels, Medicare, Social Security, and pensions is not borne of fiscal responsibility, but of the drive to take everything from all the people and transfer it to the wealthy. In fact, even so-called evangelical “Christians” adhere to a belief contrary to their religion’s namesake that as a prelude to the second coming of Christ, there is going to be a “transfer of wealth” where god seizes the wealth of the wicked and redistributes it to believers that in conservative parlance is the wealthy. It is important to remember that conservatives openly regard the poor, women, middle class, and people of color as “the wicked” that gives them moral cover to rob the people of everything they have in a blatant show of open hostility toward any American who is not ultra-wealthy.
Republicans have left no demographic untouched by their hatred and despite their declining approval ratings, they are going forward with their holy war on the American people. The GOP has always hated the poor, but they expanded their war after an African American was elected President to include the rapidly declining middle class with an assault on the public sector workforce, unions, private sector workers, wages, overtime pay, sick leave, pensions, and particularly jobs. The people should have understood their predicament when John Boehner said “so be it” when told Republican spending cuts would kill over a million jobs early in 2011. In fact, one of the primary assets in their war on Americans is their enthusiasm to kill jobs to increase poverty under the guise of fiscal responsibility, and their refusal to take any steps to create jobs they promised to sweep into power during the 2010 midterms was a calculated maneuver they executed with machine-like precision. Americans are still waiting for their laser focus on creating jobs and they will be waiting indefinitely because creating jobs is counter-intuitive to their plans to decimate the people.
America has become a killing field for Republicans and they will not be content until the entire population is clinging to life in dire poverty. No American is safe whether they are Republican seniors, minorities, women, public sector workers, private sector workers, children, Veterans, and those steeped in evangelical fundamentalism. If you are an American who is not in the richest one percent, Republicans are in a blind rage to decimate the economic life out of you, and your RNC or NRA membership card does not make you immune from their attack. Extreme conservatism is a religion, and although the teabaggers are easy targets for blame, mainstream Republicans have sought every way under the Sun to take from the people to enrich the wealthy. It is Republicans as god taking the wealth of the wicked (Americans who are not wealthy) and transferring it to the righteous that in conservative jargon is corporate America and the uber-wealthy.
There is a popular saying that Republicans hate President Obama more than they love America, and although Republicans hate the President with extreme prejudice, they hate Americans with the same intensity as they do the President. If any American does not believe it, let them cite one demographic that has not been adversely affected by Republicans, or one thing they have done to help the people. It is time for Americans to face a sad truth and that is if they are people of color, women, senior citizens, middle class, children, Christian, Veterans, or poor they are under assault in the Republican war on Americans.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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