The Party of Exclusion

The other day I read David Neiwert's blog posting about vote suppression in Washington State. That got me thinking about the individual people who claim allegiance to the Republican Party. How best to define them? I think they are people who exclude others; exclude them from the country, exclude them from voting, exclude them from benefits, exclude them from the Bill of Rights.

Yet while they say "those people" should not receive health care or food assistance or anything "free", they are making sure that "our kind" is getting the best of everything. Well - "We have the money, are the right color, know the right people, speak the right way. How could we not deserve those things?"

Those people who seem most drawn to the "Republican values" are those who seem to like to define themselves by highlighting the differences of others, and lessening the humanity and/or importance of anyone deemed "other". What are they so afraid of? Being excluded themselves?

In a way I feel sorry for them, until I see the damage they have caused. I think their fear of the "Other" is the most animal of fears; like a flock of chickens attacking the weakest or newest member, they create solidarity by attacking differences and excluding them. They do not rise above their animal instincts, they do not use their intelligence to better humanity. What if "humanity was defined in terms of intelligence, civility, and the pursuit of justice rather than by species or form"**?

I don't think the Republican's could endure that.

**Six Moon Dance, Sherri S. Tepper