The Rage Won’t End on Election Day, By FRANK RICH

[jefferson_dem]

The Rage Won’t End on Election Day
By FRANK RICH

CARL Paladino began his New York gubernatorial campaign by bragging he’d “clean out Albany with a baseball bat.” When an ally likened his main Albany target, the (Jewish) leader of the State Assembly, to “an antichrist or Hitler,” he enthusiastically endorsed the slur. We also learned of Paladino’s repertory of gag e-mails — among them a pornographic picture of a woman having sex with a horse and a photo of an African tribal ritual captioned “Obama Inauguration Rehearsal.” How blind we were not to recognize that his victory in a Republican primary under the proud Tea Party banner was inevitable.

A week ago New Yorkers were presented with a vivid reminder of how a bat can be used as a weapon. A pack of young thugs was charged with torturing three men in the Bronx for being gay, one of whom, The Times reported, was sodomized with “a small baseball bat.”

It’s probably safe to assume that no one in this lynching party has heard of Paladino. Presumably he has heard of them, but a man of Tea Party principles will not compromise, no matter what may be happening in the real world. Don’t tread on Carl! And so last Sunday, as the city was reeling from both the Bronx bloodbath and the earlier leap of a bullied gay Rutgers freshman off the George Washington Bridge, Paladino visited a fringe Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn to stand his ground. He attacked gays for supposedly plotting to brainwash children into accepting the validity of homosexuality.

We don’t know what will happen on Election Day, but one fairly safe bet is this: Paladino will not be the next governor of New York. However tardily, he’s been disowned not only by the state’s extant, if endangered, cadre of mainstream Republicans but even by some of the hard right. No one apparently told him that while bigotry isn’t always a disqualifier for public office, appearing on YouTube vowing to “take out” a reporter from Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post can be. As a rule, it’s career suicide to threaten to murder your own political base.

<SNIP>

Don’t expect the extremism and violence in our politics to subside magically after Election Day — no matter what the results. If Tea Party candidates triumph, they’ll be emboldened. If they lose, the anger and bitterness will grow. The only development that can change this equation is a decisive rescue from our prolonged economic crisis. Not for the first time in history — and not just American history — fear itself is at the root of a rabid outbreak of populist rage against government, minorities and conspiratorial “elites.”

So far neither party has offered a comprehensive antidote to our economic pain. The Democrats have fallen short, and the cynics leading the G.O.P. haven’t so much as tried. We shouldn’t be surprised that this year even a state as seemingly well-mannered as Connecticut has produced a senatorial candidate best known for marching into a wrestling ring to gratuitously kick a man in the groin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17rich.html?_r=1&ref=frankrich&pagewanted=print

[Bitwit1234]

1. I have one thing to say IF the people who are going to vote

for republicans really believe that they have the interest of the middle class and the poor at heart they should be cast on the same island as they throw republicans. Do they truly believe that the republicans will, or even WANT to create jobs. Do they believe that the republicans would vote to extend unemployment benefits for people. And look at all the other bills they have blocked. Do they think if the republicans took the majority they would magically turn around and have the interest of the REAL PEOPLE instead of CORPORATIONS AND THE RICH. I don't think that many Americans have lost their minds.

[alsame]

2. One point I disagree with - the Tea Party didn't begin with

Santelli's rant on CNBC, it began at the McCain/Palin rallies. All the hatred at those rallies, the cries of Obama being a socialist, "kill him", darkening his pictures, using his middle name to call him a Muslim, etc. was stoked over and over again.

Those people didn't just go away after the election, they turned into the Tea Party with the help of organized right wing groups that tapped into the hatred. Yes, the bad economy made it worse, but the fear and hatred was there long before Santelli opened his disgusting mouth.

[JTFrog]

4. Actually the Tea Party was started by a couple billionaires.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/10/14/koch-industries-shifts-on-tea-party/?mod=wsj_share_twitter

[alsame]

5. Yep, that's what I meant by organized rw groups. They

just organized and manipulated the people who were freaking out during the 08 campaign.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. If The Economy Was Truly Growing They Would Be An Isolated Fringe Group

A target of ridicule and scorn.

This economy is destroying us.

[Champion Jack]

3. got this in an e-mail

"The genius behind the Tea Party campaign is that it is a corporate created public relations/political campaign designed to promote pro-corporate economic policies via government while calling the movement 'anti-corporate and anti-government.' The racism angle is just a way to hook 'poor and middle class whites' into an effort designed to economically benefit the wealthiest of the wealthy at the expense of 'the poor and middle class of all colors.