Many of my Republican friends would protest and say it isn't true -
they don't hate people, nor even hold them in contempt.
They love them.
They just wish they'd straighten up and ... I don't know what.
Not be poor?
Not be born into economically oppressed inner cities (or stagnating rural areas)?
Not grow up in an American subculture?
Not be persecuted?
Not be abused?
Talk like the white majority in whatever community they are in?
Go to church with them?
Don't listen to weird music?
Don't get arrested for things that white people are doing but don't get arrested for?
I don't know what they want, frankly. Maybe they just want to be comfortable in their self-esteem.
But some, of course, are quite willing to express it directly as contempt and are proud of it.
Sadly, if they are voting Republican, whatever the motive, they are putting lots of people in positions of power who, in the name of those who voted for them, are
a)not interested in understanding the plight of people on my lists below,
and who are
b) quite willing to do them damage through indifference, and through deliberate public policies of exploitation and direct oppression.
There is a LOT of contempt (which sometimes is clearly hate) sloshing around in America for :
African Americans
Hispanics
Native Americans
Immigrants
Any darker-skinned people
Muslims
etc.
And for white folks if they are
Gay / LGBT
Under arrest
Poor
Single with children
Working minimum wage jobs (often two or three jobs)
Women
Not eager to flaunt guns in public
Registered Democrats
etc.
One of the most dangerous things about such contempt is that, historically and in the present, it often leads to violence and thus to the disintegration of social order. That's serious business.
The Bible repeatedly urges us to take a different attitude. For example:
Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
- Proverbs 24:11,12
They will say that we do not defend the unborn. But had Republicans been willing to work with Democrats on issues of social justice over the last two decades abortions would have declined much more in that time than they actually have.
Apparently more unborn have died because of Republican intransigence and finger-pointing than would have otherwise. They have not really been very pro-life.
So I do maintain - there is a lot of contempt and hatred sloshing around in America, and a lot of it is being promoted by holders of high office - and the people who elect them. That is clearly a moral issue, and a life (as in "pro-life") issue.