Politics has always been a dirty game. A game played for the reward of money and power retention; typically lacking moral obligation. Promises made to secure votes. Some with intent, and some without. Whatever it takes to gain or retain power.
Over the course of my life I’ve known that politics was a dirty game. The ‘dirty’ part, however, always seemed to fly under the radar. Stories of greed, mismanagement and blatant public deceit typically coming out weeks, months or even years after presumably good policies have passed. Over time, I’ve come to expect that. The one thing that I hadn’t witnessed was blatant racist personal attacks between political rivals - seemingly without fear of repercussions. There have always been name calling and disagreements - which led to the different parties in the first place - but rarely in the form of the personal attacks we see in today's political arena. It appears to be the new norm.
A couple weeks ago a Congresswoman from Colorado was speaking to some of her constituents at a gathering in our nation’s capital. During her address she mentioned that upon arriving at the capital that morning, as she approached the elevator, she witnessed a Capitol police officer running, seemingly out of breath and in crisis mode. She said that as she witnessed the officer running, she also noticed another Congresswoman, who happens to be Muslim, off in the distance. She continued her story stating that she was relieved that she didn’t see a backpack on the Muslim Congresswoman, so the fear of a Jihad starting was avoided - at least for the day. She inferred that her colleague, who has no history of violence, was, in essence, trying to overthrow the government - or at minimum, blow up the building.
I’d never seen that level of fear mongering, disrespect and race baiting among our politicians. At least not that blatant - and spoken directly to the people.
The Congresswoman who who slandered her colleague then attempted to walk back her statement, offering to reach out to her colleague and apologize. When she reached out, the Muslim Congresswoman stated that the apology, just like the slanderous statement, should be made publicly. When the slandering Congresswoman refused to make a public apology, the Muslim Congresswoman reportedly ended the conversation.
At least one network reported that the Muslim Congresswoman hung up on her attacker, not giving her a chance to apologize. The facts, however, seemingly paint a different picture. Her attacker wanted to control the narrative of both the attack and the apology. The Congresswoman, under the guise of her whiteness, tried unsuccessfully to exert her privilege. Thankfully the Muslim Congresswoman stood her ground.
As much as it doesn’t make sense, that’s where we’re at as a country. The question about whether we've moved forward or not I'll leave up to you. Disrespect, racism and xenophobia have all morphed our political framework into the dumpster fire we have today. And as optimistic as I try to be, only time will tell where we go from here.
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