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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 9/21/09

The Next Civil War is About to Begin

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Ed Menken
Message Ed Menken

Anyone watching the mobs acting out at the various town hall meetings around the country during August, trying their best to drown out the elected officials who were attempting to engage their constituents in rational dialogue about health care reform, were actually witnessing members of far-right groups and extremist organizations with an undeniable hatred of government, of anyone who disagrees with them, and, of course, of President Obama. The same hate-filled fringe was also on display on 9-12 at the lunatics' march on Washington, where Confererate flags, posters of Obama with a Hitler moustache, signs that included all sorts of vile verbiage against Obama, and shrieks of "We Want Our Country Back echoed across Pennsylvania Avenue.


In fact, these mobs are composed of overlapping hate-driven sub-groups including extreme racists, irrational xenophobes, ignorant secessionists, insane anti-abortionists, KKK loyalists without their dunce-headed robes, gun-crazy militants, and moronic malcontents who are inspired by hate-mongers like Douche Limpbra, Shame Hannity, Mickey Mouse Savage, Anorexic Annie Coulter, Moronic Malkin, and, of course, Brain-damaged Beck. They're increasingly incited by the FOX Noise Liars Club and encouraged by the Greed Over People (GOP) party (since all of these miscreants like to call people they don't like by names other than their own, I decided a while back that they deserve the same treatment).

I watched in near disbelief on Friday, September 11, when Chuck Todd, MSNBC's Chief White House correspondent and Political Director, while sitting in for Chris Matthews on "Hardball , was interviewing Congressman James Clyburn from South Carolina. Todd said that Obama "obviously has a problem with the south , and asked Clyburn what "Obama should do about it. What should be obvious to Todd, and all the rest of the reporters and commentators who appear on and in the various corporate news media, is that it's the south that has a problem with Obama, not the other way around! Todd, and all of his bullshitting brethren, know that a recent poll showed that among self-declared Republicans in the south, 55% either believe that Obama isn't a natural born citizen, or aren't sure. And they know that in another poll several months ago, 11% of the American people still believe he's a Muslim. They also know that two days before the election, 23% of Texans believed the same outrageous lie. Indeed, in nearly all of the south, and with some pockets of lunacy in other parts of the country, these deeply racist and hate-filled individuals and groups now represent a clear and present danger to the United States of America.

We know that gun and ammo purchases since Obama's election have gone through the roof. We know that the Secret Service is dealing with an average of thirty threats a day on the life of the President, four times as many as with any other president. We know that militant militias around the country have seen their ranks swell far beyond the numbers they had in the 1990's, and, unlike the early 1990's, they now have the Internet to use for membership recruitment. And if you want to see an example of the maniacs at play, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XDVJhNcGw&feature=related.

While the cowardly talking heads and so-called "journalists on TV continue to try to convince their audiences that the far-right irrationality and extremist behavior we're seeing, replete with swastikas, posters claiming Obama is the reincarnation of Hitler, and gun-toting giddiness, represents "legitimate anger and is comparable to some mysteriously similar activities on the left which do not exist, they are, in fact, inexcusably enabling the lunatic fringe. But that's the state of "journalism today; the facts don't matter, but the outrageous behavior that makes for "good pictures of screaming and hate does. In their alleged desire to be "fair , the shrunken and tortured excuses for what passes as journalism bears no resemblance whatsoever to the profession practiced by Cronkite, Murrow, and Huntley and Brinkley not too long ago.

The easily connected "dots that clearly show the racist hatred that still exists in this country, and it's flagrant emergence during the last presidential campaign, has been all but completely ignored by the corporate media. And in doing so, the purveyors of "news are in fact encouraging the hate-mongers and radical extremists, allowing them to flourish in plain sight.

It wasn't that long ago when President Eisenhower had to order troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to guard nine black students as they entered Central High School. The racial hatred that was clearly exposed in the crowds that lined the streets and steps leading up to the school is now a matter of history, and one of the significant "dots to remember. Then came the civil rights marches through the south that were met with angry mobs, police dogs, high-pressure fire hoses that knocked people off their feet, and the billy-club beatings of peaceful protestors perpetrated by enthusiastic police. More "dots. Then, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the racist-driven political ideology began to take a new political direction and culminated in Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy and the mass departure of "Southern Democrats to the Republican Party, where they still reside though the faces and names have changed. More "dots . And although there were hate-filled events that occurred in other parts of the country, none of them compared to what was going on in the deep south.

This recollection of history isn't merely to serve as reference points; rather, it is to recognize that the people who demonstrated extremist hatred back then were the parents and grandparents of many of those whose racism is on display today at the tea parties, the incendiary town halls, and Brain Damaged Beck's highly exaggerated 9/12 protest in Washington. It doesn't require a child psychologist to tell us that the imprinting received at home, especially when it includes racism and bigotry, nearly always results in the offspring of bigots believing and practicing the same, or even more intense hatred than the parental poison bestowed upon them.

The droves of hate-filled "birthers , and others, who carry signs reading "We Want Our Country Back are begging the question, "Back from whom ? Back from the "socialist , the "communist , the "Nazi , the Muslim who shouldn't be in the White House? Or is it simply "back from the ˜n-word' who isn't supposed to be president'?

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Ed Menken is a life-long, self-described "unapologetic progressive", a proud member of the ACLU, and a strong supporter of Barack Obama.
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