ENDA the polarization

We all need ENDA.

The Employee Nondiscrimination Act is a piece of legislation that would “prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with at least 15 employees.”

No matter what you think about marriage, sin, condemnation, abominations or whether or not you’ll see Nathan Lane in heaven — you will, don’t worry — I think we can all agree that discrimination is wrong.

At least, one would hope.

“Liberty and justice for all white, upper-class, straight, educated males” just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

I can understand the marriage debate. I think the kindest adjective to characterize it would be “misguided,” but I can see why lawmakers long ago in a society much more religious and less compassionate than ours made the erroneous decision to be superficially exclusive.

What floors me about the ENDA debate is that it exists in the first place.

The notion that there are people — and politicians — in this country who believe it is acceptable to hire or fire employees based on who greets them when they get home after a long day at work is infuriatingly incomprehensible.

Translating homophobia from marriage to employment redefines the consequences from psychologically disturbing to economically terrifying. The vicious cycle of social injustice finds its footing in drastic discrepancies between economic statuses, and letting prejudice dictate an individual’s financial security (or lack thereof) is boldfaced cruelty.

When the Senate passed ENDA on Nov. 7, 64 to 32, they made a clear statement that government-sanctioned inequity was no longer acceptable. Is justice around the corner?

Nope. Why? House Republicans.

CNN reported that House opposition was so strong, it was “unlikely” that the bill would become law, and that highlights the second thing that baffles me about resistance to ENDA.

The Republican Party is slowly but surely making itself irrelevant. In December 2012, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus commissioned a report that illuminates a major flaw in the GOP game plan: alienation of the fastest-growing groups in the United States, which includes Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and people under the age of 30.

Our generation is poised to usher in a new future for America, one that finally embraces, embodies and exhibits the ideals behind “liberty and justice for all.” Our generation is also fleeing the conservative camps in droves, according to Priebus’ report, and as we go on to raise open-minded children, the Grand Old Patriarchy will soon be left in its 18th-century dust.

This is a prime opportunity for the GOP to clamber out of the grave it dug during the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Conservative politicians who are either too afraid of losing their constituents to compromise or are still pretending it’s 1865 and are alienating our generation by polarizing themselves to an unrelatable end of the spectrum on social issues.

In a refreshing display of good sense, 10 Republicans joined 52 Democrats and two Independents in supporting ENDA in the Senate.

If Republicans in the House want to see the party survive, they have to stop polarizing their constituents and rejecting the politically moderate, which describes the majority of voters.

End discrimination, end polarization or end the GOP.

— sbkissel@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Sarah Kissel on Twitter @QueSarahSarah_.