There is no more denying that the Republican Party is the Party of Hate

[Joanne98]

It's the party of hate, the party of bigots, the party of fear and loathing. As the dust settles from the health care marathon, what is revealed is the ugly gargoyles that constitute not just the fringe nutballs of the teabag movement, but the mainstream Republican Party that spouts the vitriol of the reptilian brain in the halls of Congress.

This kind of head has been around for as long as I've been alive. It was there at Bowcraft, an amusement park in Scotch Plains, NJ that when I was a kid was just a miniature golf course and archery center -- and John Birch Society bookstore. It was there in 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered. It was there when Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker played racism for laughs. It was there in the late sixties and early 1970's when the right wing slapped "America: Love it or Leave It" bumper stickers on their cars -- stickers that translated really meant "Nixon: He's the President so Shut the Fuck Up." It was there at Kent State in 1970 when four kids on their way to class were shot dead by National Guardsmen at the behest of said Nixon for the crime of being young at a school where protests were going on. It was there when Ronald Reagan, the saint of the Republican Party, announced his candidacy for president in the very town where civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered and when he twisted a minor case of a wealthy woman who defrauded the welfare system into an image of black poverty.

I am 55 years old, and for my entire life, the Republicans have stood for nothing but fear and loathing and hate. They give lip service to "free markets", but they only care about how such markets benefit the wealthiest among them. What the understand is fear -- raw, pee-in-your-pants, heart-palpitation terror. The the terror of death that drives people to believe in a giant alpha male in the sky. The terror of losing what one has to people who look different. The terror of the unknown. The 9/11 attacks handed the Republicans a giant gift-wrapped box o'fear that they've been tapping ever since, and the bellowing of John Boehner the other night was just a manifestation of just what mean, small, frightened people they are.

Bob Herbert pulls aside the curtain today and shows us, as if we didn't know already, who these people are:

http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

1. To Be Fair, the Southern Democrats in the 1960s...

... weren't quite progressive.

Now, the South is a Republican stronghold... so they all jumped ship after Civil Rights, etc.... but to be fair......

[buff2]

3. Oh yes...we've got to be fair to the repukeliKKKans

NOT!!!!!! :grr: :argh: :puke:

[abq e streeter]

4. No, just being historically accurate

in fact that whole phenomenon is just a further indictment of the repubs...as soon as the Democratic Party, nationally, finally took a firm stand on equal rights for black people, the republicans eagerly recruited the southern ( and other) racists who had until then been comfortable with their regional variety of Democrats. This was the birth of the blatantly, and for that matter, proudly racist republican party as we know it today... and LBJ knew it, and said as much at the moment he signed the civil rights bill. So yes, to be fair, and accurate, these out and out bigots of the republican party would have been Democrats in many cases 50 years ago.

[FSogol]

2. K & R. n/t

[Cheap_Trick]

5. Archie Bunker was NOT racism played for laughs.

Whoever wrote that sure doesn't know Norman Lear at all.

Archie Bunker showed just how ignorant and intolerant people like him were. He was usually put in his place by Edith or Meathead.

from wikipedia:
"In spite of his numerous flaws, Archie was simultaneously portrayed as basically decent and, rather than being motivated by genuine malice, was merely a product of the era in which he had been raised. In the episode "Archie and the KKK," for example, Archie is invited to join a secret club - the Kweens Kouncil of Krusaders - which turns out to be a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. In spite of his inherent discomfort around people of color, Archie responds with genuine revulsion at the group's violent methods, and attempts to thwart a cross burning. It should also be noted that as the years went on, Archie grew more accepting of people different from himself, albeit partially out of necessity. For example, in 1978, the character became the guardian of Edith's nine-year old niece, Stephanie (Danielle Brisebois), and when it was revealed that Stephanie was Jewish (episode 197), Bunker accepted her faith."

and

"Bunker was originally planned by creator Norman Lear to be very disliked, and Lear was shocked when Bunker quietly became a beloved figure to much of middle America. Lear thought that the opinions of Bunker on race, sex, marriage, and religion were so wrong and incorrect as to represent a parody of right wing bigotry; instead, Bunker's thoughts, broadly speaking, accurately reflected the mindset of some of the viewing audience. In fact, Sammy Davis, Jr., who was both black and Jewish, genuinely liked the character; he felt that Bunker's "bigotry" was based on his rough life experiences and also was honest and forthright in his opinions, and showed an openness to change his views if an individual treated him right (Davis in fact appeared on All in the Family to tell the Bunker character this)."

[samsingh]

6. there is no doubt - but i've known since reagan

[agentS]

7. It's like watching a in-color repeat of the 60s.

Spitting, attacking people, breaking windows, a difficult war,

when people say history repeats itself, they ain't playin.

[Stuart G]

8. Yes, the party of hate, hate, hate and more hate.... K and R