Economic fears breed intolerance
Connect the dots:
Many Americans (and politicians who the polls) don鈥檛 want a mosque at Manhattan鈥檚 Ground Zero.
An increasing percent believe the President is a Muslim.
Most Americans approve of Arizona鈥檚 new law allowing police to stop anyone who looks Hispanic and demand proof of citizenship.
Most would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are here illegally.
Where is all this coming from?
It鈥檚 called fear. When people are deeply anxious about holding on to their homes, their jobs, and their savings, they look for someone to blame. And all too often they find it in 鈥渢he other鈥� 鈥� in people who look or act differently, who come from foreign lands, who have what seem to be strange religions, who cross our borders illegally.
Americans who feel economically insecure may even become paranoid, believing, say, that the President of the United States is secretly one of 鈥渢hem.鈥�
Economic fear is the handmaiden of intolerance. It鈥檚 used by demagogues who redirect the fear and anger toward people and groups who aren鈥檛 really to blame but are easy scapegoats.
It has happened before.
Economic crises animated the pre-Civil War Know-Nothings and Anti-Masonic movements, the Chinese exclusion acts, the Ku Klux Klan in the economically-ravaged South, and the anti-immigrant movements of the early decades of the 20th century.
In different places around the world, mass economic stress has had far worse results. At its most extreme it has spawned genocide.
We are far from that. But it鈥檚 important to understand the roots of America鈥檚 growing intolerance. And to fight the hate-mongers and cynical opportunists who are using the fears unleashed by this awful economy to advance their own sordid agendas.
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