Political Correctness

What does political correctness mean? According to Merriam Webster, the phrase politically correct means “agreeing with the idea that people should be careful to not use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people.” Politicians (specifically on the right of the aisle) have clearly decided that offending groups of people is an acceptable way of gaining votes in a wild presidential election. Donald Trump has said there is “no time for political correctness.” Marco Rubio has stated that political correctness is “free speech under assault.” Ted Cruz claims that “political correctness is killing people”. The only remaining Republican presidential candidate that has stayed away from the political correctness issue is the slightly more moderate John Kasich.

We keep hearing conservatives say that they want to protect the constitution and the bill of rights. Let’s take a quick look at the bill of rights and other amendments in the constitution to see how they are planning on protecting the rights of individuals. The first amendment gives the people of the United States freedom of religion. The fifth amendment gives individuals equal protection under the law. The fourteenth amendment prohibits states from discriminating against employees based on membership in a group, like a race, religion, or sex.

How do conservatives plan on protecting our rights when they have decided that offending groups of people based on race, religion, sexual orientation is acceptable campaign rhetoric? Mr. Trump has over and over said that all Muslims hate America. He wants to ban them from coming into America and says that Muslim-Americans should have to be in a government database. Furthermore, he has said that they should carry identification cards showing their religion. That sounds a whole lot like Nazi Germany when Jewish citizens were forced to wear a gold Star of David on their clothing.

Conservatives may need to re-think their decision that political correctness is unnecessary in today’s world. Based on the definition of political correctness, they are effectively telling the American people that insulting, degrading, and planning to take the rights of groups of people based on religion, race, or sex is the path that they want our country to take. America was built as a nation of immigrants, a nation of equality, and a nation of freedom. With a lack of political correctness, our citizens are being discriminated against and losing their rights under the U.S. constitution. Let's KEEP America great by respecting all citizens regardless of their individual differences.