Quote:
Originally Posted by Roast Beef
I struggle with the hate. So much hate. Gays, Atheists, non-white people, it's overwhelming how much hate there is.
|
Exactly.
Yes, people are frustrated with the establishment, at the status-quo.
But there hasn't been status-quo for the last 8 years. In the last 8 years we've made strides in helping people with terrible illnesses get healthcare, because insurance companies can't deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. We've made strides by letting gay people openly serve in the military and get married. We've attempted to make strides to get women equal pay.
We've made progress. There's been change.
But these people don't want forward change. They want to change back to the way things were. Many of these people want to go back before Roe v. Wade. They want to go back to the days of Don't Ask, Don't Tell or worse. They want to go back to the days when women were quiet and meek and let their husbands make the decisions. They want to go back to days when they could intimidate minorities from voting. They want to go back to times before the EPA's regulations made coal a too-expensive energy source to produce.
They kept the Congress and House that have attempted to stop progress.
They took it out on the President who was pushing that progress through.
This isn't just about wanting "change." This is about wanting the change that helps
them, and only them. This is about fear of women gaining the same privilege, about minorities overtaking them, about technology leaving them behind.
Rather than learn and grow and move forward, they want to drag everyone back to their Golden Days. It may not be outward
hate, but their hopes and dreams for America of the 50s ignores that America of the 50s was BS for a whole lot of people. And that's a whole lot of the underlying racism and sexism and xenophobia that is inherent in these people's belief system. I honestly don't believe they actively want bad things for others.
But they see it as a zero sum game. If women make gains and latinos make gains and blacks make gains and gays make gains, clearly they're going to lose out. And they don't want to lose out, so it's better to hold everyone back rather than realize that everyone--including themselves--could move forward instead.
This is a vote for fear as much as it's a vote for hate, and that's just as ugly.
