To the Editor:
Last week I heard a speech that I cannot get out of my mind. It was about fear and how over the last three decades it has been weaponized to cause a divide in our country.
Prior to the 1990s, in the Congress and Senate of the U.S., there was a congeniality and although, there were policy differences, they came together on the big ideas. After that time, there have been few instances. In early 2016, there was a bi-partisan immigration bill that had a chance, until someone convinced Marco Rubio, one of the architects of it, to tank his own creation for a political reason – no wins for Obama.
Our country has changed. In 1980 the white population was 85 percent of the total. In 2020 it is estimated to be about 60 percent, the balance being hispanic, black, asian and others. Conservatives blame it on the 1964 civil rights law but the decline preceded that, in a straight line back to 1950. Studies and news reports started in the 1990s with fear mongering about what these changes might mean to life in America. The GOP picked up the banner with Newt Gingrich changing the dynamics to a war-like, no holds barred rhetoric in the 1990s, inciting the GOP base to “fight”, to oppose the changes, threatening, “an end to life as we know it”, leading to the huge divide and angry rhetoric that dominates the airwaves today. So, it is fear that drives the divide, the hate, and the anger that exploded on DC on January 6 resulting in the injuries of over 100 police and even deaths. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 and his re-election seemed to push the most radical of the base over the edge, incensed that a black man was sitting in the oval office, and spearheading the rise of white supremacists and radical anti-government militia groups as well as the racist South and uncovered the festering sore of racism in American that rose up and elected Trump. He sang their song and reflected and added to their fears, culminating in “you have to fight like ….” and “you won’t have a country anymore”, leading to the rioters chant of “Trump sent us”. “Our President Trump invited us”.
The fear is real for those people. But, the risks are false. Our country is the same. We all go about our daily lives without change. Giving rights to all Americans and allowing all registered voters to cast their votes with ease does not infringe upon our rights or our daily lives. We have just come through a deadly pandemic and lost over 500,000 Americans to the disease. Yet, 70 percent of older Americans have been vaccinated now and there is a dramatic drop in hospitalizations and deaths among the most vulnerable of us. Scientists tell us there will be more pandemics in future. Measles is a risk because anti-vax folks are not vaccinating children. Measles can cause pneumonia and measles encephalitis which can cause deaths, blindness and retardation in formerly normal children. There may emerge a new virus that will cause the future pandemic. Our government needs to put into place better plans, facilities, and preparation so that the errors of this period are not repeated. Our government works. It is not perfect and we can improve it, but it is resilient and it works.
The abnormal fear and anger that have been indoctrinated into conservatives over the last 30 years is a false narrative and has been full of lies, half truths, conspiracies, and even Russian propaganda, as the Russians saw a vulnerability and specifically targeted vulnerable conservatives via social media and the internet. This can and should end. You conservatives that have bought into this false narrative need to examine your lives and see if the fear and anger you project are not more of a threat in your life than learning to live with few inevitable changes in society that lie ahead. The ship of change has sailed. Get on board and work to direct it in positive and possible ways forward or flounder in the surf.
Jamison Hoage
Village of Poinciana
