Connecting Dots

A couple of stories this morning that somehow linked together in my mind. First, this one, about the Naval Yard shooting in Washington:

The top surgeon at a Washington, D.C. trauma center minutes ago told reporters that “there is something evil in our society” when “when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple injuries.” Dr. Janis Orlowski, the chief medical officer at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, at times close to tears, decried the “senseless trauma” she says she sees daily.

“There’s something evil in our society that we as Americans have to work to try and eradicate,” Orlowski said. “There’s something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple injuries,” she added. “There is something wrong.”

It's heartbreaking:

And somehow, that connected with this story, about Miss America:

The crowning of Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, as Miss America should have been, to paraphrase her platform, a celebration of diversity through cultural competency. But in the hours after her victory, Twitter became a frank demonstration of American incompetence in matters relating to both ethnicity and geography.

“Well they just picked a Muslim for Miss America. That must’ve made Obama happy. Maybe he had a vote,” said one user.

“I am literally soo mad right now a ARAB won. #MissAmerica” wrote another.

It should go without saying that Davuluri, a Syracuse native of Indian descent, is neither Muslim nor an Arab. But according to Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes, the American-born Davuluri doesn’t “represent American values,” unlike the blonde-haired, blue-eyed contestant from Kansas, Theresa Vail.

Trust Fox News -- and I'm more than a little convinced that Fox News is a big part of the problem. The nice part of this story is that Twitter was deluged with tweets in support of Ms. Davuluri, as it should have been.

And how does these connect? I suspect it has to do with something I mentioned in a couple of comments at the AmericaBlog story. First:

The Miss America pageant is one of those iconic "American" things that might have made some sort of sense once upon a time but have become such institutions that the whys don't matter any more. They just are. I'm not sure that it has anything to do with a "sense of national honor" (except for the mouth-breathers who have a warped idea of what this nation is about anyway). It does have a lot to do with a sense of national identity, I think, which is why the reaction from the racist fringe has been so vocal -- you can't be "American" if you're not just like them, which leaves the rest of us -- who do have a more realistic sense of what America means -- scratching our heads and wondering where these idiots came from. (And heaving a sigh of relief that we're not just like them.)

Which leads to:

The teabaggers are the latest manifestation of an element that's always been with us: the "conservative" element (read "reactionary") who can't deal with change. They spend most of their time hiding under rocks and waiting for an opportunity to make their voices heard -- usually at the behest of someone who is vastly smarter and who can use them to further his own agenda -- Reagan with the "Christian" right, the Kochs and Karl Rove with the teabaggers are only two of the latest examples.

It seems that element will always be with us. The frightening thing now is that they've managed to accumulate the power they have. Another case of the tail wagging the dog. I hope the Republican partly implodes before they manage to destroy the rest of us.

There's an element of American society that is small-minded, mean-spirited, vicious, violent, and easily unhinged. (Although I doubt that it's just us -- make that "human" society.) So give them radio, social media, and worse, guns, and this is what you get.* There's a kind of synergy working: crazies have access to wider audiences than ever before, and it's starting to have a strong effect on our national mentality.

It's their core values: exclusion, arrogance, ignorance, hatred for the "Other."

Cue the religious right. And the Second Amendment freaks. The Internet is littered with stories that tie into this.

* And they elect people just like them to Congress.