The Coming Republican Attack, Part 1: Mainstreaming Racism:
Now that we're all trying to hold hands and get our "Kumbaya" on over here in Democratville post-Clinton campaign suspension, let's not forget about what's coming. The self-fellating right wingers in this country are going to try to portray Barack Obama as some kind of unholy combination of a razor-wielding pimp and a back-stabbing house negro. Who converted to Islam. Get ready for the mainstreaming of contemporary racism.

Hell, Obama's candidacy has gotten Floyd G. Brown, the creator of the "Willie Horton" ad, all hard and yearning to start fucking. Brown has started a website and gotten some ads going where he wants to show how Obama is weak on crime because, among other things, Obama didn't support the death penalty for gang members. Fucker's not even subtle about his opinions of the Democratic nominee: "Obama is a liberal, only slightly more stylish than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, but equally dedicated to the same causes." Damn those uppity coloreds.

Once the mainstream media goes full force on the whole "can a black man be president" thing, you can bet that they're gonna trot out every scuzzy racist with a thick Appalachian or Boston accent they can find. Like the Guardian did yesterday, going into Appalachia (and elsewhere) to talk to voters in, say, West Virginia about why they won't vote for Obama, like Johnny Tevlor, who said, "We'll end up slaves. We'll be made slaves just like they was once slaves" if Obama is elected. Frankly, it's kind of deeply hilarious that there are people kept so stupid in this country that they think a black president would enslave white people. When Tevlor goes back to his shack in his shitty little depressed town to gum on a dry biscuit, one hopes he feels free under the white presidents.

You see what the Rude Pundit did right there? He engaged with an idiot. Because by putting the idiot's opinion in the newspaper, it seems like it's a relevant argument, not just an extremist perspective from the most talkative racist in the town. Over at Americablog, Aravosis goes through the nutzoids who spout hate-filled bullshit all over John McCain's poorly monitored blog comments section. Yes, it shows that there's assholes who can type, but little else.

To be sure, there's a helluva lot of people who would rather dangle their balls over a bear trap than vote for a black man. And, to be sure, racism is a justified subject in this election. But to give air to the vilest speech possible, to make it seem like it's anything more than the most backwards ass thinking the country has to offer, is to give aid and comfort to the not-quite-as-disgusting racists, the ones who may not believe that Obama will enslave them, but "just don't feel comfortable" with a black man in power.

And the Republican destruction machine is going to harvest those feelings of discomfort like delicate poppy flowers and make it okay to feel that way as long as they keep it to the voting booth and put away the nooses.