re: #201 Obdicut

Why did you bring it up at all?

I never claimed it was. You’re having an argument with a position I never held. Congrats.

And currently the GOP and the right-wing in general are exploiting the hell out of it.

You still haven’t told me why, in the face of all the race-based politics in the moment, you believe bigotry is marginal— except that you really, really believe that it is.

Again: why on earth do you believe that bigotry is not a mainstream force in US politics in the current moment, given the anti-Muslim bigotry that’s being used as a political hobbyhorse in these midterm elections? Just take that one issue alone, never mind the anti-Obama crap, the anti-ACORN crap, the Shirley Sherrod bullshit, the Rand and Ron Paul crap, the Buchanan antisemite shite, the John Birch society racism, the anti-Mormon bigotry, and all the other current bigotry: Just explain why so many GOP politicians are running on a “Mosque bad” platform, if bigotry isn’t mainstream.

Racism was the topic of the post.

I believe racism is far more marginal today than it was. As you yourself noted, we’ve come a long way.

Lastly, I believe the anti Muslim sentiment is, as I said, a symptom more than anything else in the same way that much leftist anti Israel (and as of late, anti Jewish) sentiment is symptomatic of other issues.

The left/right divide is exploited by those who stand to benefit from that division. I truly believe most Americans have more in common than they have divisions.

Sometimes I wish we’d not lose sight of that.