What to make of the birthers, tenthers, teabaggers and Palinites...
I take some issue with Carter, Dowd and other pundits. What I see is not so much the rabid KKK hooded racism of the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, but the cranky "Archie Bunker" bigotry variety. Let me explain...
Their behavior rooted in a stubborn refusal to change -- their world is the way it is and always will be, no matter what evidence is shown them. They don't like change. They don't want change. And they're mad as hell that despite their raging at the ocean, the tide is still coming in.
The angriest cling to illusions of privilege that they never enjoyed or had a remote chance of getting -- and their only recourse is to blame people and groups that have moved on and up for their lot. They prefer to be willfully ignorant of the real world around them and adamantly refuse to acknowledge reality even when it smacks them in the face.
Most will continue to make political mischief on an increasingly marginal field -- like crazy uncles muttering conspiracy theories and bigoted world views.
Archie Bunker was ultimately undone by the glaring light of comedic satire. Even in the 1970's, few would come to the defense of the indefensible bigot -- rather his character was parodied into something that people laughed at (and then pitied).
Today's Archie Bunkers are being cheer led to a different place.
Instead being held up for ridicule & pity, they are being held out to be ersatz heroes by a marginalized and cynical GOP and their enablers.
There will be those among them that are simply waiting to lash out -- and encouraged as they are by the insane ravings of Beck and bolstered by the tut-tutting of the "conservative" establishment -- the chances of another Oklahoma City grow alarmingly higher every day.
This is my fear. I wish it were unfounded.
I take some issue with Carter, Dowd and other pundits. What I see is not so much the rabid KKK hooded racism of the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, but the cranky "Archie Bunker" bigotry variety. Let me explain...
Their behavior rooted in a stubborn refusal to change -- their world is the way it is and always will be, no matter what evidence is shown them. They don't like change. They don't want change. And they're mad as hell that despite their raging at the ocean, the tide is still coming in.
The angriest cling to illusions of privilege that they never enjoyed or had a remote chance of getting -- and their only recourse is to blame people and groups that have moved on and up for their lot. They prefer to be willfully ignorant of the real world around them and adamantly refuse to acknowledge reality even when it smacks them in the face.
Most will continue to make political mischief on an increasingly marginal field -- like crazy uncles muttering conspiracy theories and bigoted world views.
Archie Bunker was ultimately undone by the glaring light of comedic satire. Even in the 1970's, few would come to the defense of the indefensible bigot -- rather his character was parodied into something that people laughed at (and then pitied).
Today's Archie Bunkers are being cheer led to a different place.
Instead being held up for ridicule & pity, they are being held out to be ersatz heroes by a marginalized and cynical GOP and their enablers.
There will be those among them that are simply waiting to lash out -- and encouraged as they are by the insane ravings of Beck and bolstered by the tut-tutting of the "conservative" establishment -- the chances of another Oklahoma City grow alarmingly higher every day.
This is my fear. I wish it were unfounded.
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