I think we've sunk far below deserving democracy. Thanks to the RWS™ and their willing listeners, the constant efflux of hatred and paranoia discharging like pus from Fox "news," insane conspiracies promulgated by and to the aggrieved and frightened, people have been whipped to a frenzy of polarization. How pathetic is this (partial summary):
- Belligerent citizens demanding the right to personally inspect the voting process and yelling "shut up" at the top of their lungs when election officials tell them that only official poll observers can do that.
- Official poll observers who have been improperly trained by the groups they represent and think it's their job to interrogate voters rather than just watch.
- Long lines, which means that a lot of people end up waiting outside the designated no-electioneering zones, getting harangued by campaign workers.
- Shouting matches between Republican and Democratic campaign workers -- and sometimes voters standing in line -- that can involve name-calling, threatening gestures, and the summoning of law enforcement.
- A guy driving a tractor-trailer bed filled with effigies of Democratic officials, including President Barack Obama, with nooses around their neck. (Federal officials are looking into that one, which took place at an early voting center in Eastern North Carolina on Thursday.)
If there's the occasional crazy talk on the left, a brick thrown here or there, there's simply no equivalent on that side: no media that so constantly and deliberately lie as Fox "news" does. No radio jockeys that spew the hate-filled rhetoric of a Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter. Why? Because liberals don't do it, or need it. True conservatives don't either; but there's nary a one left in today's Republican party or on their bought-and-paid-for airwaves.
Don't forgive them, fathers; they know exactly what they do.
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