…in terms of how we’re going to be perceived by the rest of the world. Why am I having deja vu about the 60’s?

I’ve lived in Allentown, which is right next door to Bethlehem. Not everyone there is like this. Honest. But some are, and they’re pretty vocal. Fascism, I thought, was thrown in the waste bucket of history after WWII, but perhaps not. This is disgraceful, and none of the Republican candidates are really disowning this or discouraging their minions from becoming an angry mob. Guess that means the good guys are winning, but it’s really scary. Reminds me of the run up to Rabin’s assassination in Israel years ago.

Just read this here (scroll down a bit from the top of that page to read this and other comments):

It hurts to think how stupid the average Republican voter is in this country. That anyone in this country can countenance McCain’s pick for VP for even a micro-second shows how full this country is of dumbsh*ts. A red-neck, young-earth-believer, rapture-ready hockey-mom with virtually no experience and the GOP is going gah-gah over her? Republicans have nearly destroyed this country over the last 8 years, but they won’t be happy until they’ve finished the job with McCain/Palin. Good God, I’m just speechless. God help us all.

Yup.

The original article by Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, which is very much worth reading, is here.

We’re so totally wicked hosed if Obama/Biden lose. Seriously. And we thought W wore his religion on his sleeve? We ain’t seen nothing yet.

That’s pretty much all I can say about what the Republicans who are meeting right now convey to me. They are consumed by hate. Pure visceral hate of us nameless liberal folk. You know, us godless, perverted, heathen, elitist Eastern types (which used to be the codewords for “Dirty Jew” until these guys fell in love with our wonderful turncoat Joe Lieberman). Unlike the Democratic Convention last week, which had some positive, respectful words about John McCain as a person (just listen to Bill Clinton’s speech for one example), all these guys are doing is trashing Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And it’s personal. Even Michelle Obama isn’t immune. 

Their hypocrisy is blatant and glaring.

In their minds, it was fine, even legitimate for them to trash Obama, along with his association with his religious minister, Rev. Wright. That wasn’t decried as racism, nor was his personal life (indeed, his religious life) declared “off limits.” Hell, when Obama made a very subtle reference to racism, stating that he doesn’t look like the folks on Mt. Rushmore, the McCain team immediately criticized him for playing the “race card.”

Well, all these right-wing folks are doing is playing the gender card. I have enough faith in the American people, other than the fundamentalists, to believe that they will see through the illusions. It seems that many of them, even Republicans, recognize this for the farce that it is.

And I won’t even go further into the Palin fiasco. Yeah sure, someone like her is more qualified than Obama. He was…let’s see…head of the Harvard Law Review, an adjunct at my alma mater’s law school, and involved in State and Federal legislatures for some 12 years. And that’s in addition to his work as a community organizer.

She was…a finalist for Ms. Alaska.

I rest my case. And I didn’t even have to mention her devotion to abstinence-only education, her strict pro-life stance, her apparent willingness to ban books, her alleged association with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, and Troopergate. The media, including the blogosphere, is doing a wonderful job of doing the vetting that McSame should have done ages ago. So I don’t need to echo what they’re reporting.

But would it kill these folks tonight to at least acknowledge that Obama and Biden are good people? Then again, when you have nothing much to run on, you trash your opponent and hope it sticks. Obama is ahead in the polls. How’s all this trash talk working for you, John and Sarah?