Ugly Poo-Poo

I'm not sure why the ongoing fever pitch of ugly behavior in these Untied States of America is causing any sense of surprise among anyone who's been paying attention. The reactions and the stories you've been seeing of late are not new and they are not random or accidental. The spitting on a congressman and the gay and racial epithets hurled as reported last weekend, you don't think that's the same force that drove James W. von Brunn to make his way to the Holocaust Museum in June 2009? You don't think the same force that caused Congresswoman Louise Slaughter's Rochester office to get pelted with a brick is the same force that caused Raymond Hunter Geisel's arrest for allegedly threatening to assassinate then-candidate Barack Obama in August 2008? There is an ugliness brewing in America. It is a nebulous, corrupted, churning cloud of poo-poo. And it is billowing. It is not random, and it is not by accident, and it is not merely driven by racism, though that is one of its most powerful currents. Paranoia, fear, anti-abortionism, ignorance, economic despair, there are so many ingredients in this shit-storm that Martha Stewart would have trouble divining a recipe from it. But it's there, and I emphasize that it is not there by accident. Remember this?

Remember, then-candidate Obama had been a child when Bill Ayers was blowing shit up. And yet, Prudence Palin was one of the most out-front and most unspoken when it came to America's newest "ism." In fact, I'd say that in this, the post-Dubya era, she was the pioneer of talking as ugly as you can to whip up a frenzy. Guess what she's doing today? She's campaigning for John McWeirdsmile in sunny Arizona. Despite John Boner's lame protestations of late, his party is one that does not take this ugly cloud seriously. But, as our good friend Rachel Maddow pointed out to us, such firing up by our political leaders can have horribly tragic consequences. Go on, watch it, and be sure to perk up your ears at 3:45.

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