Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Lizard brains

Digby of Hullabaloo:
But the impulse lives on inside people like Limbaugh and his listeners, who make up a non-trivial minority of population. That the first black president comes out of the liberal tradition creates a terrible threat to their worldview, and this whole ginned up controversy with ACORN registering minority voters, Ayers, Wright and the rest subsequently feeds into a very old narrative of blacks exacting revenge against their white oppressors.

It's ridiculous, I know. But the history of this (thankfully) shrinking number of Americans is bloody and violent and they should be taken seriously. Limbaugh is inciting certain very ugly, primitive beliefs in his listeners and there's nothing "entertaining" about it.
Entertaining the unspeakable. Hope the FBI cracks down hard on these people.

Digby's post does address the deeply unacknowledged thoughts racists have, that what they believe, what they do to others reflects back on them and would be done to them in a blink of an eye. Hate is often fear projected outward. Maybe they realize the world has moved on and this makes them more angry and afraid. Their comfort zones are being threatened.

But we can thank the young for keeping the country moving forward. To my daughter's high school crowd, a black president would be cool and not at all remarkable.

3 comments:

Distributorcap said...

i fear what could potentially happen after obama wins....

we have a lot of angry nutcases in this country -- who listen to rush and coulter - and who would not resort to other means

Sorghum Crow said...

Bunch of crazies out there.

I think the FBI and Secret Service will have a lot of folks to watch. Sad, really.

ellroon said...

I read that Obama had death threats early in his campaign and was given Secret Service protection right after.

To have that hanging over you and your family, yet go out and be pleasant to everybody, shaking hands and smiling, it's very impressive. He's put up with smears and lies from the McCain camp, the name calling and shouts for his murder. It would make a normal man quail in his boots.

Obama and Michelle are brave people.

I hope we deserve them. Keep them safe.