A Seat On A Plane

I don't always agree with Melissa Harris-Perry, but among the talkers on MSNBC she ranks first, along with Lawrence ODonnoll. Today she pointed out that it's not quite accurate to say that the Republicans who hate President Obama are racist. They hated President Clinton just as much, even though Clinton was a white centrist who lived in Wall Street's pocket. In the case of Obama the Republicans have a racist card to play--that's the difference. They use racism.

The question is why do Republicans hate mildly centrist Democrats like Clinton and Obama? It seems clear that the hatred is irrational, marked by accusations, in Obama's case, of his being a Fascist-Marxist-Islamist baby killer born in Kenya who wants to turn the USA into France. So loud and crazy is this campaign that there is almost no room for the Left to squeeze in its accusation that Obama leans to the Right.

The Republican base of angry old white men and the women who obey them has reason to be angry. The system has screwed them. Many have seen themselves or their children shoved back into the crowded narrow seats in the back of the airplane with the Latinos, pregnant women and African-Americans. They have been relegated to cheap seats when once they flew first class. Their place in the seating arrangements has changed. They don't know who did this to them, but they see the Latino sitting beside them and turn to face him and his President with white hot rage.