Political Bigotry

Friday night, Ron and I were sitting on the patio of a pizza place in our neighborhood enjoying a sleepy summer’s evening when three talkative people sat down right next to us. They were talking about—what else?—politics.

Sitting just three feet away from them, we tried our darnedest not to listen. But I couldn’t help overhearing the following sentence: “That John McCain should be strung up by his shorthairs!”

It wasn’t surprising that these people were talking about politics. Everyone seems to talk about politics in Wisconsin these days. I remember when only certain people used to talk about politics, only some of the time, and how I admired friends who knew their representatives’ names and voting history. That’s all changed. Now, most Wisconsinites know who our representatives are, and conversations often eventually turn to the recall effort, Governor Walker’s budget, or other news from the Capitol.

My ears perked up when I heard the political discussion, but I didn’t want to be rude. I groped for ways to distract Ron and myself and settled on reptiles, since I’d just been reading about them at work.

“Hey,” I said. “Did you know turtles can live for over 200 years?”

“I did.” Ron was not impressed.

“Oh. But did you know that they know this because some recently dead turtles have been found with things like musket balls in their stomachs?”

“Really? How did the turtles survive being shot?”

“They weren’t shot, silly. They swallowed the musket balls.”

“Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know!”

It might have been at this point that the man at the next table said, “That John McCain should be strung up by his shorthairs!” Ron and I tried not to laugh.

The man went on: “This is all his fault. He’s the one that brought that Sarah Palin into the limelight and gave her and the Tea-Partiers a legitimate national voice. Now those people are actually being listened to, and it’s all McCain’s fault.”

I thought of another factoid to tell Ron—something about snakes’ vision—but inwardly kept thinking about the man’s words. I was struck by the phrase those people.

Is this what we’ve come to? I thought. The Tea-Partiers are those people? All of them? And what’s wrong with a group having a voice?

The Tea Party may be a movement I disagree with, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have a voice. It has tapped into something that hits home for a lot of Americans—and not just ignorant ones. According to Wikipedia:

Tea Party supporters are mainly white and slightly more likely to be male, married, older than 45, more conservative than the general population, and likely to be more wealthy and have more education.

One Gallup poll found that other than gender, income and politics, self-described Tea Party members were demographically similar to the population as a whole.

Rather than bemoaning John McCain for bringing the Tea Party to center stage, we should be asking ourselves why the Tea Party speaks to people across America. These are people who feel disenfranchised by their government and by the media, and who are energized by a movement they feel finally represents them. To dismiss them only confirms their disenfranchisement—and strengthens their resolve.

Inadvertently eavesdropping on the “shorthairs” conversation, the word bigot popped into my head. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines bigot this way:

a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group… with hatred or intolerance.

Among the dictionary’s examples are “an incorrigible bigot who hasn’t entertained a new thought in years.”

The man at the next table sounded an awful lot like a bigot to me. I suspected that notion would shock him, especially because he was an obviously gay man who had no doubt endured more bigotry than anyone else at the restaurant.

I later Googled “political bigotry” and discovered I’m not the only one who’s thought up this term.

In a (now unavailable) article entitled “Political Bigotry and the Tea Party,” Aaron Johnson wrote about liberals’ bigotry towards the Tea Party and vice versa. He started off:

As an upstanding businessman and as a Freemason I have a lot of friends who are very vocally conservative. As an artist and as a would-be counterculture revolutionary I have a lot of friends who are very vocally liberal. As a sane and rational human being I find all of these people annoying.

Later, he wrote:

Now, if your brain turned off and your eyes glazed over and you started seeing red after reading the words “tea party,” you’re exactly who I’m talking to so I need you to calm down, think about kittens and universal health care for a little while and relax. Now focus.

Another blogger named David Gruder had a similar article (also now unavailable) called “Integrity Disgrace Award – Political Bigotry.” He summed it all up nicely: “political hatred, bigotry and polarization is THE most problematic and dangerous threat to democracy itself.”

So watch out, my fellow Americans—closed-mindedness can come from any side of the political aisle. Whether or not your side is right, once you become a bigot, you’re no longer helping.