The erosion of protection for human rights in the USA is becoming increasingly clear. The more influence political parties confer on the increasingly vocal and politically active religious right, the more xenophobic and religiously intolerant the climate in the USA will become.
It is an odd turnabout for a country founded by pilgrims seeking to AVOID religious persecution. America has come to accept and tolerate expression of the most outrageous hateful opinions about Muslims and history should have taught all of us that in a climate where one religious group can be subjected to religious persecution and marginalization, other groups define by religion, language, gender identification or political perspective have no justification to feel safe.
For a country whose constitution promotes a separation of church and state, the USA has become polarized along lines of religious extremism as severe as Iran after the Islamic revolution. No one should rely on outdated notions that the USA is a haven of tolerance and a place open to newcomers from around the world.
People run off at the mouth about how Mexicans in the USA are taking away jobs from legal American residents.
The jobs these foreigners do offer low pay, no job security or benefits and are the kind of work those who complain so bitterly would NEVER do even if they were on the verge of starvation.
Truth has so little to do with their intolerance. These hateful lowlifes get pleasure blaming people who are the easiest and most convenient targets.
In Fascist regimes leading up to World War too, the general populace was told that all their economic troubles were the fault of an identifiable group arbitrarily selected based on irrational hatred and prejudice. When such lies are repeated over and over, the ignorant hordes adopt these beliefs because it is easier than thinking for themselves or taking responsibility for fixing what is really wrong with their country.
The economic corruption on Wall Street that crushed the US economy has nothing to do will illegal immigration. It had to do with total deregulation perpetrated by Republican politicians who advocated that the market could and should police itself. This opened the door to the sub-prime mortgage disaster. The shameless profiteering of financial institutions who lied about their financial status wiped out peoples personal savings and the pension plans of employee groups. Mexicans did not cause this messes!
The loss of jobs in the auto manufacturing industry was also not cause by Mexicans!
The loss of high paying jobs in the financial sector were not their fault either.
When the economy is bad, people affected by those problems look for some group on whom to blame all the problems. The rise in widespread intolerance against identifiable groups is compounded by the hysterical and false proclamations of the false prophets of the extreme-right media.
The Glenn Becks and the Bill O’Reilleys and the Rush Limbaughs tell you who is to blame and who you are supposed to hate and distrust.
People looking for countries where religious tolerance is well established can look to Canada, and several of the Scandinavian countries.
The USA has ceased to live up to its ideals and founding principles. What a pity!