Empathy's Swan Song ... Part II

The GOP is at it again, from Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute," for arguing that Georgetown should cover contraception (Slate), to Minnesota State Representative Mary Franson comparing food stamp recipients to feeding wild animals (Crooks & Liars), the party appears to jumping over the deep end in vilifying the poor, immigrants and woman -- three pretty big constituencies (lest us forget gays as well). And as they have become so adept at, they actually play the victim card in claiming that they are the ones suffering for our attempts to end racial inequality, provide equal rights to all or help those who are suffering the most in the country. It has often been said that you can judge a society by how they treat their most marginalized populations, and if Republicans get their way, we will soon be telling them to eat cake (if they can find it dumpster diving, that is). 

Rick Santorum invoked the "Christian victim" narrative in responding to criticism of his support for the birth control bill that just failed by a few votes last week arguing: "We hear so much about the left wanting to separate church and state. Well, how about the separation of church and state when the state wants to force the church and people who are believers into doing something that they don't want to do." (C&L) He continued by claiming, ""I'm reflecting the views of the Church that I believe in. We used to be tolerant of those beliefs. I guess now when you have beliefs that are consistent with the church, you are somehow out of touch with the mainstream. And that to me is a pretty sad situation when you can't have personally-held beliefs." Well first, yes you are out of touch with the mainstream, the twenty-first century and most of the world's population. But to claim that someone can refuse service because of their beliefs is simply absurd, and does harken back to the founding fathers and their belief that neither the church, a monarch or one branch of government should have too much power. For Christians to be able to refuse to provide birth control would be like a 7-11 telling blacks they can't buy candy there, or a doctor refusing to provide emergency service to a Jew or Muslim or a car salesman refusing to sell cars to a gay man. Aren't we passed this silliness yet? Well, not in the U.S. and, when it comes to immigrant groups across Europe, not there either.

The most troubling aspect of this debate is the underlying lack of compassion or empathy for those whose beliefs are different than yours. The OWS protesters were just bitter losers, those who fight for affirmative action are just trying to use race to gain unfair advantage and the poor, of course, are always to blame for their own problems. From the corporate boardrooms to Wall Street to conservative pundits and politicians we see a move away from concern for anyone except those who hold the same beliefs as you. And it begs the question of whether the Internet and new media have actually facilitated people becoming even more insular, and ignoring anyone who disagrees with them -- reorienting their anger towards those at the bottom of the economic order and anyone that thinks or behaves differently. And this has always been the problem with organized religion and fundamentalisms of any kind -- they don't just live a certain way, they believe everyone should live a certain way. The inability to see the hypocrisy of screaming for corporate and market freedom while they try to legislate what people do in their bedrooms has always fascinated and troubled me, but the level of vitriol and absurdity that the debate has taken on today makes me wonder if the entire country hasn't lost their minds!