Not long after Barack Obama was elected President, I noticed something become a big part of politics in The United States-racism.
I obviously realize there are racist people in every country but believed their ignorant and racist thoughts were usually kept in the privacy of their living room. I never in my life thought it would come so far into the political discussion as when after Obama became President.
When did I first realize something was wrong? When I saw the Tea Party. This movement claims to be about small government and less taxes and for some of its members that is what it is about. However, the more I saw the things Tea Party members were saying and the signs they were holding I saw that some Tea Party members had another problem - A black man was in the White House.
I'm pretty sure most people would think these pictures look pretty darn racist. Is this an extreme fringe group-yeah, but the scary thing is the Republican party in the U.S. desperately needs the votes of this extreme fringe group and is going farther and farther to the right to keep them happy.
After seeing video of a few of these rallies it scared the crap out of me that the country next door to us that claims to be the greatest country in the world was starting to see this group move into the mainstream and effect the way people vote and the way politicians campaign.
What was even more disturbing to me was the "birhter" conspiracy. I guess if a President in the U.S. has brown skin and an ethnic sounding name, some Americans just don't want to believe that he might have actually been born there. If a group like The Tea Party demanded to see his birth certificate I would not be surprised but many of the people demanding to see his birth certificate were elected officials in the Republican party.
I like watching Anderson Cooper absolutely destory this guy on every point he is trying to make.
Even after showing the certificate some politicians still could not accept that this black man was born in the U.S. and some were keeping it going only because they know it pleases their base.
When the Americans go to the polls on Tuesday night I only hope most of them vote for either Romney or Obama because they believe they are the right man for the job, and hope they do not vote for either of them only because of the colour of their skin, but hey that is very wishful thinking.
