This Makes Me Sad

I asked my brother-in-law if he supported this statement:

"Liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God."
--Rep. Robin Hayes (R., N.C.) on Saturday at a rally in North Carolina

Although he's a Bush-McCain-Cheney-Palin Republican, I expected him to repudiate the statement. That wasn't quite what happened.

He replied with an argument that was even more ludicrous than Bill Clinton's "that depends on what 'is', is." It was pure bullshit.

I expected a response such as, "No, that's entirely unacceptable," or "Hayes clearly doesn't speak for me," or maybe an even broader, "No, that's not what the Republican Party is about."

Inistead, he said:

I'm trying to imagine which keywords to concentrate on here:
Liberal ("Democrat", "Socialist", "Marxist", or maybe even "Centrist"?)
hate ("disagree with", "dislike", "can't tolerate", "bent on destroying"?)
real Americans (perhaps as opposed to "illegal immigrants", "non-native legal immigrant descendants" or maybe only those who oppose one's political views?)
work and accomplish and achieve (as opposed to enabled via social welfare paid thru oppressive taxation?)
believe in God (as opposed to "atheists" or "non-Christians"?)

So without knowing more about the beliefs and record of Mr. Hayes, I don't categorically support or disavow the statement.

Yow!

So this is what we're up against. My brother-in-law is a bright guy. He graduated with a double major from (The) Ohio State University. But he's been so brainwashed by the neocons who have taken over the Republican Party that he can't even see the hate speech embodied in "Liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God."

That sincerely frightens me because I can't even begin to imagine a liberal making such a hate-filled blanket statement about conservatives. If we cannot learn to live together and work together for the common good of the United States of America, then there is no hope for us — any of us, liberal or conservative.

Incidentally, on the subject of "believe in God (as opposed to 'atheists' or 'non-Christians'?)", I feel a response is called for. Non-Christians often are part of a mono-theistic religion; in other words, they and Christians believe in the "one 'true' God", so I'm puzzled by the distinction between atheists and non-Christians. Beyond that, there are other possibilities. "Agnostic" is just one of them and that seems to be where I find myself at this time.

If there's one thing that incenses me, it's for someone to say that his or her religion is the one true way to redemption. That is simply absurd because no one on this planet has any more information about redemption than anyone else. But it seems to me that if there is a God, that being must expect us to treat each other fairly, honestly, and charitably.

If you believe in the kind of God who is just waiting for you to fuck up so that he can say, "Ah, ha! Damn you to Hell, fool!" you believe in a different kind of God from the one that I would believe in if I believed in God.