A polarized nation should look to unite, not divide

Editor,

The recent Arizona shootings exposed what a truly sick, misguided nation we live in.

We are addicted to violence and destruction, and we celebrate that fact every day. Our two pointless, never-ending wars (and the ensuing costs) aren’t even newsworthy anymore. We worship death and destruction, and all of us are responsible for the culture we have created. Bigotry, racism and intolerance are increasingly becoming the norm.

Hate-mongers like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly are successfully turning Americans against each other, in search of new enemies to attack and humiliate, while inciting their followers to violently resist anyone who disagrees with their hate philosophy. Since President Obama was “elected,” public discourse has consistently been stifled by the purveyors of ignorance who consider anyone who disagrees with their paranoid

Their targets are labeled “traitors,” and “Hitler” (or worse) who must be stopped at all costs. The right-wing pundits constantly provoke followers to rid the country of liberals and socialists in order to save us from destruction. Death threats have now taken the place of rational debate.

I knew the loonies would come out of the woodwork once Obama was installed as president, but even I am shocked at how quickly and to what extent this mass psychosis has gripped our nation. I’m disgusted.

Many citizens appear to be irrational, violent lunatics ready to go on a killing spree at the drop of a hat. The rhetoric of the extreme right has invigorated huge swaths of the already-unhinged populace to the point where this country is virtually at war with itself. Divide and conquer — works every time!

I mean, what other nation on Earth supports a major political party whose No. 1 goal is to deny half of its own
citizens the basic human right to affordable healthcare?
That is pure evil. There’s no other way to put it, and this kind of irrational hatred of our fellow, less-fortunate citizens is truly a sign of a profound national sickness. These are Americans for God’s sake, not terrorists.

To these scumbags, compassion should only be shown to the ultra-rich (as if they need it). I’m sorry, but when we start blaming the poor and downtrodden for our nation’s problems, we have a serious disconnect from reality.

And when the GOP leadership can decide that repealing Obama’s meager overhaul of our pathetic health-care system and denying millions of Americans access to health care is a viable political platform and people actually support it, we must acknowledge the fact that a large percentage of our fellow citizens are just plain evil, too.

Unfortunately, what happened in
Tucson, Ariz., is just the beginning of a long, downhill slide into utter chaos.

Jason Darensburg
UNM student