The Other Side, Fairfield Daily Republic

Fear now driving our politics
By Kelvin Wade April 1, 2010

Change has come to America and America is afraid. New York Times columnist Frank Rich recently wrote about how changing demographics really fuel Tea Party rage. And while he loses credibility when he compares bricks thrown through Democratic offices with Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany, his overall thesis hits the mark.

It's not a surprise that a recent Quinnipiac poll found that most Tea Partiers are white (88 percent) and worried about the direction of the country (92 percent). But why are mostly whites attracted to this movement? And why so angry and threatening over an issue like health care?

Could it be that they believe America is being lost to minorities and that 'Obamacare' is a big welfare giveaway to them?

Hispanics, America's largest minority group, make up 15 percent of the population. But according to recent studies, Hispanics accounted for 50 percent of America's growth between 2000 and 2008.

That, coupled with the decline in white women of child-bearing age and their smaller numbers of reproduction, means by 2040, America should be majority minority. California is already there with non-Hispanic whites making up 42.3 percent of the population. Immigration reform will be a super-heated issue because of this.

You can see the anxiety among many whites of what a majority minority America would mean. There's a fear that treasured traditions and customs would change. You saw the fear on display with the out-of-proportion responses to Justice Sonia Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' remark and the Henry Louis Gates affair.

A black president brings the stark reality of America's changing demographics home. Washington also features the most powerful woman in America, who also happens to be two heartbeats away from the presidency. This is radical change for many to absorb.

It's not just whites. Especially during an economic downturn, all ethnic groups grow suspicious, wondering about their piece of the economic pie.

However, this fear of change isn't limited to race. This same fear of change informs many Americans' views on gay marriage and other gay issues. To be sure, religion and homophobia are the primary fuels of the opposition but fear of such a large societal transformation is also a factor.

Legalization of marijuana will be on the November ballot and a poll last year showed most Californians support it. To opponents it's just another sign of a new, radically permissive America.

Fear of change has led to a run on guns. A recent Harris poll shows 61 percent of Republicans fear President Obama will take their guns. It's groundless. In 2008, candidate Obama supported the Supreme Court's decision striking down a sweeping handgun ban and just last month mayors scolded the president for not doing anything on gun control.

Fear is driving our politics. Reason has left the building.

The fear runs deeper than Tea Partiers, race, xenophobia, homophobia, the Right and Left. And it's not about health care. The fear is that the American dream has slipped away from us; that we're just marking time and fighting for scraps in an empire in decline. Peace.

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NOTES: This is something that my friend and coffee buddy, Joyce, have talked about for the longest time.

The Tea Party movement has been much maligned. And there's no doubt it's filled with honest, hardworking Americans who are afraid that their country is going the wrong direction. I get that. I wouldn't say it was a racist organization. And I'm afraid some readers are going to come away with that impression solely because some people just see what they want to see.

Minorities are really afraid, too. The recession has hit blacks harder than whites. The joblessness rate among blacks is 16.5%. Yet they don't make up a significant portion of the Tea Partiers. Almost 9 out of 10 Teabaggers are white. That's telling. It's also telling that George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress ran up huge deficits, conducted two wars off the books, passed the PATRIOT Act, enacted a huge entitlement program, implemented a "federal government takeover" of education as far as testing goes, and passed the $700 billion TARP program and no Tea Parties formed. There were no marches on Washington. No caricatures of Bush as the Joker or Hitler by angry Tea Partiers. No national handwringing about our children being saddled with debt.

The thing that changed was a black Democrat was elected President. And this was a change that shocked a lot of people. Barack Obama lost the white vote to John McCain and still won the Presidency by 7 points. Again, that doesn't make the people who opposed him racists. After all, no Democratic President has won a majority of the white vote since Lyndon Johnson. You can read a fascinating article on this subject HERE.

But I submit that a black President, a close female contender (Hillary) and female Speaker of the House highlighted that America has changed. The fact that Hispanics are the largest minority group and we're increasingly a bilingual country is more change. And socially, we're changing as well. And all of these changes has caused whites, (mainly white males) who have been the ruling class of this country since its inception, a great deal of anxiety.

E Pluribus Unum is giving way to Si se puede, in the eyes of many. Still, me pointing out that there is a racial component to the anxiety, to the outrage, whether it's conscious or unconscious, is going to leave some Tea Partiers and conservatives claiming I said they're racists. If they want to play the victim card, they can. I'm not biting.

Everyone is afraid right now. Health care. Jobs. Homes. Foreclosure. Credit card debt. College tuition. Making ends meet. And we know that during hard times there's a greater chance for scapegoating. Xenophobia comes into play. We've got to be away of it to handle it.