This is, of course, a map of the election results showing the states that voted for Senator John McCain in red.

I saw some networks, in their near obsession with voter demographics, show this map:

This map shows which states had the lowest percentage of white voters voting for Barack Obama.  The states where the fewest white people voted for Obama are in dark red and purple.

Now stay with me…here is an interesting map, also shown during the election’s demographic analysis, highlighting the states with the highest number of voters who identify themselves as members of evangelical, Protestant religions:

The darker the shade of blue…the more evangelical Christians.

Of course, analysts also covered the educational aspects of America’s voters.  Here’s a map showing which states have the fewest high school graduates:

The lighter the shade of green…the fewer people graduated from high school in that region.

Another subject for analysis, was the income/poverty level of voters.  Here’s a map showing areas with the highest poverty levels:

The darker the green…the more people living in poverty.

You probably know where I am headed with this.  But if that is the case…then why did I not see a single network, a single media outlet, directly address this “800 pound gorilla” which is dramatically affecting our nation’s political conversation?  I saw experts on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, MSNBC, and CNN display these maps…then scratch their chins and shrug, saying things like, “I’m not sure what this tells us.“  How about this:  I’ll say it…

The poorest, most uneducated, most intolerant, most religiously extreme portion of our country…limited mostly (but not entirely) to the southern states…is the base of the conservative movement, and the Republican Party.

Now…before we go any further…here are things that I am NOT saying:

- Not everyone in the South is racist/intolerant, and yes, there are lots of intolerant people in other parts of the country.  The South simply has MORE racists and otherwise intolerant people.

- Not everyone in the South is poor or uneducated, and yes, there are lots of poor and uneducated people in other parts of the country.  The South simply has MORE poor and uneducated people.

- Not everyone in the South is an evangelical Protestant, and there are evangelicals in other parts of the country.  The South simply has MORE evangelical Protestants.

- Not everyone who is an evangelical is poor and/or uneducated.  Not everyone who is uneducated is poor and/or evangelical.  Not everyone who is poor is uneducated and/or evangelical.  Some people are one, two, or all three of these things.

This population is more likely to be on unemployment, public assistance (re: welfare, food stamps), or some other public program…and they are also more likely to be AGAINST these same types of social programs, which they are told to view as “big government,” or “socialism,” or, “handouts for lazy people.“  They are also more likely reject evolutionary theory, climate change theory, health-related studies…and many other scientific ideas.  They are more likely to believe that President Obama’s birth certificate is a fraudulent document…and that he was instead born in Kenya.  They are more likely to believe that the newly-passed Health Care legislation is going to “kill grandma,” or “pay for abortions,” or “provide insurance to illegal aliens.“  They are more likely to want prayer in schools, the Ten Commandments in courthouses, and to vote against political candidates for not being “Christian-enough.”  They are more likely to be opposed to any measures granting equal rights to gay and lesbian citizens, and to oppose any laws to protect these citizens.  And they are MUCH more likely…to vote Republican.

Does this have an effect on our country?  Of course it does…

Case in point: I live in a southern state.  Here are some interesting examples of what has occurred in the last twenty years due (in part) to public officials being chosen by a largely poor, uneducated, and highly religious population:

- Our state’s educational performance?  35th to 48th out of 50 states (depending on the source of the study).  Our schools have frightening numbers of “portable classrooms,” crumbling facilities, high teen pregnancy rates, and many teachers forced to teach outside of their licensure area.  We also have deceptive graduation rates…because failing students are still promoted to the next grade and nearly EVERYONE is given a diploma.  Proposals for a three cent tax increase to improve the system, buy new materials, fix buildings, or increase teacher pay…rejected by the public.  Proposal for a one cent tax increase…ALSO REJECTED.

- In 1999, just after the city’s mayor publicly questioned why so many people deride the South, the state legislature passed a bill…allowing people to legally collect road kill off the street, take it home, and eat it.

- Members of our state’s GOP, Republican elected officials, and Republican staffers…account for at least three of the nationally publicized, racism scandals stemming from “jokes” directed at our current president. In fact, it was a former Republican Party chair from our state who brought you the “Barack the Magic Negro” song.

- It was a mayor in our state who went on Facebook and accused Obama of being a Muslim…because a televised presidential speech pre-empted a Charlie Brown holiday special.

- Our state’s GOP released statements attacking the President over his middle name, and accused him of being an anti-Semite…which even prompted condemnation from the national RNC.

- Our state’s Republicans said this year…that $2.13 an hour for “tipped workers” like restaurant servers, is MORE than adequate, and objected to the wage being raised to $3.28 an hour.

-  The metro council in our state’s capitol proposed an “English-only” bill…that said that all government services and notices would only be conducted/written in English, with no translation services offered.  They also included a proposal that would allow private business to dictate that only English could be spoken in their workplace.  This is the THIRD TIME in recent years that such a measure has been proposed.  This same council recently debated (at length) as to whether or not to switch from pitchers of water to bottled water at their meetings…out of fear that “terrorists” would try to poison them.

-  The state legislature recently PASSED a bill, allowing people to start carrying guns in bars…as long as they promise not to drink while packing heat.

-  In late 2009, one state legislator proposed a bill…that would allow our state to disregard or “nullify” any federal laws they hold to be unconstitutional.

- In the Firearms Freedom Act, our state legislator proposed that federal gun laws don’t apply to guns made in our state.

- When the state was engaged in a heated debate over whether or not to enact an income tax…most of the anti-tax protesters circling the capitol, either didn’t have jobs (therefore, no income) or made so little that an income tax would not apply to them.  Many of the districts which most strongly opposed the bill, were low-income districts that would have benefitted from an income tax and decreased taxes on sales and food.  By the way, despite a soaring state sales tax…the income tax measure was defeated, and this year the legislature took steps towards making a state income tax unconstitutional.

- During our current, tough economic times…the state Senate found time to pass a bill banning the late night, “Girls Gone Wild” advertisements, almost certainly on the grounds that Jesus doesn’t want you to see them.  Similarly, our state still has “blue laws” detailing certain times when alcoholic products may not be purchased. You can guess on which day of the week sales are prohibited…

- The legislature also found time for an important debate…on whether or not an old law should be overturned, so that fish tanks could be allowed in barbershops. It passed.

-  A resolution was proposed to reject federal stimulus money, and which proclaimed that the state legislature should “strongly urge the federal government to reject attempts to establish socialism as a form of government in America.”

- I couldn’t make something like this up:  A bill has been proposed this year…to prevent the federal government from putting a chip in our heads.  Its sponsor told a local reporter, “In the Christian religion, and I’m a Christian, in the book of Revelation, there was a reference to, you know, the Mark of the Beast. Some people interpret that to be one of these microchips.“  No one is entirely certain what she is referring to when she says “these microchips” (said as if there is actually a plan to install microchips in people), but oh well…she probably saw it in a movie and just got scared.

- Our governor recently signed into law the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” which makes it easier for a person or group to claim that their religious freedoms have been violated by the government.

- One of our Representatives to the United States House recently told reports that the dialogue in Washington should definitely be more “civil“…but wouldn’t commit personally to stop calling the president a “socialist” or a “tyrant.”  This same Representative, when research studies suggested that women should get mammograms performed less often, said “this is how rationing begins.“  Ironically, she did not support requiring insurance companies to COVER mammograms.

- Another Representative (who is also a gubernatorial hopeful) recently stated that health care is a “privilege” and not a “right,” and that the health care bill represented “socialism” and “class warfare.” Our Senator said that the use of reconciliation to pass Health Care would be “the end of the Senate.”

These are the kinds of people elected by an uneducated, religiously extreme constituency…and these are the kinds of laws those elected officials focus on to satisfy such a constituency.  A constituency who is willing to be told something or someone in “Un-Christian“…even though the Bible holds no such scripture, or at times even contradicts the claim.

…willing to be told something is or isn’t in the Constitution…even though cursory examination of the document would quickly prove the position false.

…willing to believe that “end-of-life counseling” is the equivalent of a “death panel.”

…willing to believe that, if gay people are allowed to marry, that people will also have to be allowed to marry children and animals…when even a high-school-level of legal knowledge would prove this false.

…willing to believe that “their tax dollars” are going to be given to “someone else“…even when it’s not their tax dollars, and THEY will be the recipient of the benefits.

…easily led to believe that their tax burden should stay the same, and that decreasing the tax burden of the wealthiest 2% of the country will help THEM.

…easily led to believe that certain people or laws are “socialist,” or “fascist,” or “tyrannical,” or “totalitarian“…even though they have no knowledge of what these terms mean.

…willing to believe that one government-run or government-subsidized program equates to “conversion to socialism” and the “death of the free market system.”

…willing to believe that “regulating business” will cause companies to no longer be able to “do business.”

…willing to dismiss scientific claims that they don’t understand…such as believing that one blizzard invalidates Climate Change theory.

…willing to believe it when their churches told them President Clinton was the “Antichrist“…and are twice as willing to believe it when their church now tells them it is President Obama.

…willing to give up their freedoms under one president in the name of “security“…and then willing to be outraged over imaginary threats that another president will take their freedoms away.

…willing to be told what the founding fathers of this nation thought, or believed, or intended…lacking the sufficient historical knowledge to know which claims are demonstrably false.

…willing to accept that one president’s unprecedented expansion of government and the power of the Executive Branch was “necessary“…and that the use of those same powers by the next president constitutes a “dictatorship.”

…willing to accept that the use of parliamentary procedures by one congressional faction is “necessary“…the use of those same procedures by the opposing faction is a “subversion of our democracy.”

…willing to believe that waterboarding is not torture…as long as our government promises to only use it against terror suspects.

…willing to believe one year that a “patriot” supports everything his or her government does…and that the next year a “patriot” rejects everything his or her government does.

…willing to believe that everyone believes the same things that they, and the people in their community, believe.  Or that everyone SHOULD…

…and lastly, willing to believe that smart, educated people should not be listened to.  That these “elites” consider themselves to be “better” than the uneducated…and that these educated people “don’t know anything about the real world.“  They are told that those people with college degrees may know about “poetry” and other “esoteric subjects“…but don’t have any “common sense.“  That those people who have traveled the nation and the world have been somehow “tainted” by their exposure to other people, culture, and beliefs…and have come to “hate America.“  Well, as I know that conservatives are not fond of political correctness, allow me for one moment to cut right to the point:

Educated, knowledgeable people…may not be better people…may not be more principled people.  However, at the risk of damaging the fragile egos and self-delusions of the uneducated, the educated do have clear advantages.  Education builds knowledge…in vital areas such as reading comprehension (you know, so you actually UNDERSTAND what you read), history and civics (so you actually understand what America is about, and how its government is supposed to function), science (so you can better evaluate scientific claims and theories), math and business (in order to better comprehend matters of taxation, budgets, spending, and trade).  Those who go on to college further develop their research and reasoning skills, which aid them in better accumulating information and in knowing how to analyze, and synthesize that information into your own beliefs and theories…and to reevaluate and modify those theories as new information is attained.  Those college and university attendees often focus on developing deeper knowledge of business, or law, or civics, or culture, or science.  While the uneducated base their ideas on “common sense” which is often wrong, “conventional wisdom” which is tied more to “popular ideas” than to facts, and to political and church dogma or propaganda…the educated, if choosing to USE their education, are gathering information, applying reason to the data, and forming sound conclusions based on a wealth of experiences and information spanning several subject areas.

So why am I focusing so much attention on the South?  Because it has come to the time when we MUST do so.  It is time we acknowledged that we have an “at risk” region of our country.  An “at risk” region that must be dragged forcibly into the light…made to see that racism has no place in America, that education should be every person’s priority (particularly, every PARENT’S priority), that Southerners do not represent the “majority” or the “mainstream.“  The captain and passengers of our great “ship of state” are looking to the horizon, wondering why we are drawing no closer to fuller equality, fuller happiness, fuller opportunity for all our citizens.  If they would just look down, they’d see that someone neglected to raise the anchor…the southern states…and they now drag upon the ocean floor. This message is even more critical, given the current tone conservative leaders are using when addressing this particular flock.  In just the last week, I have heard this group addressed with terms like “killing,” “destroying,” “reloading,” “revolution,” “demons,” “tyrants,” “hanging,” and “crosshairs.”  This demographic has responded by spitting on members of Congress, shouting racial and homophobic slurs at members of Congress, hanging elected officials in effigy, throwing bricks, and firing guns.  The conservatives tell us that they aren’t encouraging violence, and then in the same breath they defend it by saying that these people are “angry.”  The conservatives tell us that they are simply using violent “metaphors,” without realizing the inherent threat: Their intended audience…does not know what a “metaphor” is.

In closing, believe it or not: I love the South.  I love that people here are more conversational…I just wish there were more topics that could be intelligently discussed.  I love that people here are more willing to voice their opinions…I just wish fewer of those opinions were based on their parents’ prejudices, their church leaders’ demagoguery, their political leaders’ propaganda, and their favorite media personalities’ disinformation.  And most of all, I love their big hearts, and their willingness to help out total strangers…I just wish they’d still be so willing to help those people if they knew their ethnicity, their beliefs, their sexuality, their politics.

But, I still love the South…and hope to see the day when its residents can truly love and accept all the rest of us.

While we have certainly examined this trend before, it seems we must keep revisiting it in hopes that, sooner or later, everyone will understand the very simple reason behind the GOP’s downward spiral.

It’s simple:

- All since January of this year: A staffer for Tennessee State Rep. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) sends out a racially insensitive email…she doesn’t apologize, and isn’t terminated.    Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) tells a monkey joke at a the 2009 Values Voters Summit…and then makes it clear that he’s talking about President Obama.  Kansas Republican legislator Bill Otto puts a clip on YouTube called “Redneck Rap” where he criticizes the President and then refers to opossum as the “other dark meat.“  Diann Jones, a Texas GOP official, criticized a tax on guns as “Another terrific idea from the black house and its minions.“  Audra Shay, at the time running to be head of the Young Republicans, encouraged and laughed along with racist jokes on her Facebook page and made her own joke about Obama “in a noose“…even after these comments went public, she won the position.  GOP activist Rusty DePass responds to a news story about an escaped gorilla…joking that it is “just one of Michelle’s ancestors – probably harmless,“ and the Republican Party does not apologize.  The chairman of the RNC, Michael Steele, says that he is going to lure African-Americans to the Republican Party with “fried chicken.”  When asked why he is the only senior official from Louisiana not to rebuke a judge for refusing to marry an interracial couple, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) would only respond, “I don’t think that’s the case,” then got on an elevator, declining to make further comment.  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 40.9 million black people in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

- All since January of this year: Senator Kyl (R-AZ) says that maternity shouldn’t be covered by health insurance, because he and other men “don’t need it.“  Senator Al Franken (D-MN) sponsors his first bill, which states that government contractors that attempt to force female employees not to report harassment and rape, should be penalized…and 30 Republican senators vote AGAINST it.  Republican Robert F. McDonnell, the man running to become the governor of Virginia…wrote a thesis claiming that women should not work, and should stay in the home, and that government credits for child care expenses are part of the “problem.”  The National Republican Congressional Committee said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should be “put in her place“…and not a single female Republican legislator (or male Republican legislator, for that matter) was willing to denounce the statement.  No fewer than three high ranking Republican “leaders” are discovered to be cheating on their wives, brazenly, and are all connected to the bizarre, “weirdly-Christian,” C Street house, where it appears infidelity was not only encouraged (using the justification that as ‘men of power,’ they DESERVED to do it), but it was also allowed to occur in the building and was covered up by other members.  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 150.6 million women in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

- All since January of this year: Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Justice Sonia Sotomayor a racist during the confirmation hearings…and another Republican made the “Ricky Ricardo” reference that she’d have “some ‘splainin’ to do.“  Former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo called Sotomayor a member of the “Latino KKK.”  The RNC put out a press release for Hispanic Heritage Month that had obviously just been run through a translator program and was rife with translation, grammatical, and spelling errors…and the ad they put out featuring prominent Hispanics, didn’t include Justice Sotomayor.  Two RNC officials defended Senator Jim DeMint’s failure to “bring home” funds to South Carolina…by saying he was just acting like “a jew” with our country’s “pennies.”  Representative Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) wrote the forward for a new book which claims there is a “Muslim conspiracy” to take over our government, and Myrick and other Republicans held a press conference to ask the Sergeant Of Arms of the Congress to investigate any Muslim interns.  Republican Representatives and Senators cheered on a Tea Party gathering in Washington, D.C…despite the fact that many protesters held sign bearing anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-foreigner slogans and images.  RNC Chair Michael Steele claimed, ridiculously, that gay marriage would hurt small businesses.  Representative Steve King (R-IA) said gay marriage is socialism…and later claimed that the Hate Crimes legislation to protect homosexuals would protect other, what he called, “perversions“…and then he compared homosexuality to bestiality, necrophilia, and pedophilia.  Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is now trying to get gays to support him in the fight against health care reform…despite the fact that he has called the “gay agenda” the “greatest threat to our freedom that we face today,” and also once said, “Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that’s happened to us?“  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 44.3 million Hispanics…and the 5.5 million Jews…and the 8.8 million gay/bisexual/transgendered people…and the 6.5 million Muslims in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

And these incidents…are just the SOME of the RECENT ones involving politicians and other political officials.  I’m not even including the race-baiting and fearmongering from the presidential campaign, nor any of the numerous incidents involving the right-wing media.

In the end…it’s simple mathematics.  Each of us was taught in grade school that America is a “melting pot.“  The problem is…it’s not stirred very well.  There are clumps: enclaves of single-race, single-religion, single-creed people all across this country.  Within those caches of homogeneity, people often fall into the simple trap of forgetting that, while within their clique all may share very similar profiles and opinions…the rest of the nation varies considerably.  For example, when you have lived most of your life in a small town or suburb where everyone is white, goes to the same evangelical church, votes Republican, watches FOX News, and opposes homosexuality…it may be hard to imagine that there are a VAST number of American who are not white, go to some other church (or don’t attend at all), vote Democrat (or Independent, or not at all), think only fools watch FOX News, and support (or simply show tolerance towards) gays.

Those people also live in America, and millions of others representing every possible race, ethnicity, sexuality, creed, and lifestyle…and they are full citizens with full lives, equal rights, and one vote apiece.  And forgetting that they vote, not just in the polling place but with their wallets, will lead to the continued withering of the Republican Party.  It’s simple math…and simple politics…and there’s no excuse for the GOP not knowing this.

But those people…aren’t really the heart of the problem, are they?  No one expects the portion of Americans (it appears to be about 30%) who are functionally illiterate, or marginally educated, or ignorant (either as a product of upbringing or willfulness) to react any different to what they are hearing.  We can’t really expect them to perform research, much less to read the actual bill.  We know that many…personally despise the President and will condemn any action he performs, simply on the basis of his race.  We know that some, are religious fanatics who are easily convinced that their opponents are “evil,” or “demons,” or even “the antichrist”…others, are simply mentally unbalanced….some are both.  We can’t even realistically expect them to be able to determine which news sources are reliable or which are not…they are likely to gravitate to the sources that either 1) entertain them, or 2) Reinforce their existing beliefs and prejudices.

No -- the heart of the problem, is THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW BETTER.  It is those people, generally educated and generally informed…who either for political, personal, or financial reasons are disseminating claims that THEY KNOW TO BE both false and dangerous.  And who SHOULD know how the 30% of Americans mentioned above will react when hearing the demagoguery and deceptions.

Just a few examples (certainly not an exhaustive list), from each category:

THOSE INCITING VIOLENCE AMONG THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR FAME/EGO:

• Glenn Beck: Beck whips his audiences into a furor over imaginary “FEMA Concentration Camps“…he compares health care reform to the work of the nazis, and outrageously claims that the reform plan would kill newborns and children.  He warns of Obama’s “brownshirts” (an ludicrous reference to fascism) and a nonexistent “enemies list.“  He incessantly accuses the current administration of wanting to take away American freedoms so it can rule with an “iron fist.” He even jokes about poisoning the Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.  When criticized for his positions…he accuses the people leveling charges against him as using “pure hate” speech…and then proceeds to call the president a RACIST who has a “deep-seated” hatred for white people.  Now…Beck is an educated man.  Any man with any sense knows that these claims are ridiculous and unfounded.  Any man with any sense would know that these words might drive scared, easily-influenced people to consider thoughts of violence and rebellion against the government…even Beck knows this, as recently he started making statements BEGGING his listeners not to do anything desperate.  Why did he try to take a step back?  Because he loves the attention…he loves his ability to control the 30% of Americans who lack the critical reasoning to determine that his statements are plainly false…but HE IS SCARED at the same time, that his words will inspire these people to do the kinds of sick, stupid, and deadly things that HE KNOWS these people are capable of doing.  It is the very definition of “wanton disregard for the well-being of others.”  As Keith Olbermann put it, it is the equivalent of shouting “FIRE” in a crowded theater, and then begging the people to exit in a calm manner as they scream and trample each other to death.
• Rush Limbaugh: Rush Limbaugh…also openly compares the President to the worse genocidal dictator in history, Adolf Hitler.  He claims the Obama health care logo…looks like a nazi swastika.  By making such claims, he is KNOWINGLY inciting the most easily manipulated portion of our citizens to “act against” a president and the democrats who he portrays as “evil.”  Rush paints the adminsitration as ruining this country, destroying the Constitution, ruling through autocracy, and desiring to kill American seniors.  Then…he tells “his people” that they are the true “patriots” and that anybody who criticizes their actions (especially if it’s the president) is a “racist” and a “tyrant.”  Rush knows…that these things aren’t true.  He’s been around long enough and has enough education to know about Hitler and the Nazis, and to know that there is NO reasonable comparison to the current administration.  He also knows that the president and the Democrats aren’t going to put seniors in “Statist Farms,” or to euthanize them. These statements are so false as to absurd to anyone with even the slightest education or even common sense.  He also knows…that 30% of the population, upon hearing these things, will be angered…some to the point of threats and violence.  He knows all this…and says these things anyway, because he longs for the cheers of the vast, ignorant throng that look to him and his words, whose passions flare at his ranting, who will accept as GOSPEL, even the most outlandish utterances…as long as they come from him.

THOSE INCITING VIOLENCE AMONG THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR POLITICAL REASONS:

• Sarah Palin: Palin tells the people that she just can’t support a reform plan that would send her parents and downs-syndrome baby in front of a “death panel,” a plan that, in her words, is “downright evil.”  Three days later…she says the conversation of health care should be kept “civil.”  She knew there were no “death panels” in the plan, but she said it anyway, to draw attention to herself and in an attempt to increase her political stock through publicly attacking Obama’s plan.  She knew that 30% of Americans would believe her REGARDLESS of how obviously insane the contention was…and when she realized what some of the more unstable members of that 30% might do, out of fear of “death camps,” she quickly backpedalled and called for civility…it’s too late, the damage done, but she still thought worth an attempt to cover her own ass and to distance herself from the actions THAT SHE KNEW some headcase might take because of her words.
• Most Republicans: I could list each Republican by name, along with his or her comments…but why do so, when they are all following the same script.  The RNC provided them with a memo TELLING THEM exactly what to say, and for the most part…they are consistently following with it.  They were told to describe the plan as a “government takeover,” and as the first step towards full “socialism.”  They were told to say that seniors would lose Medicare benefits, and the middle-class will carry the MASSIVE tax burden required to support the plan.  They were told to scare people into thinking that government bureaucrats would now be making their medical decisions and that “rationing” would lead to them dying without treatment.  They were told to tell us that the plan would cause ALL of the insurance companies to go bankrupt.  They were essentially told to paint a frightening picture of a communist America, where all people are poor, and where people…especially seniors…are dying in the streets without proper medical care.  They know better:  they’ve read the bill (or their staff has)…they’ve seen the Congressional Budget Office reports…and STILL they willfully lie to their supporters, stir their supporters’ fear and anger, and risk some of their more-unhinged supporters committing deadly acts.  And they do it so that they can “defeat Obama” and so they can please the health care companies who have paid for their campaigns.   It has nothing to do with the American people…for them, it doesn’t even have anything to do with health care.
• Again…Most Republicans: They have perpetrated similar injustices against the American people on the subject of Obama’s legitimacy.  You need do no more than to watch the two videos made by Firedoglake to know this.  Firedoglake asked several Republicans, on camera, what they thought of the ridiculous “bither” theorists who claim the Obama is not an American citizen.  A DISGUSTING number of them…either supported the theory, or gave non-committal answers.  Now…they have SEEN the Obama birth certificate, and the documents certifying its validity.  They KNOW that Obama is an American citizen…but they also know that 30% of Americans, many out of pure racial hatred for the President, desperately want ANY reason to claim the president is serving office illegitimately.  They know these people are racists…and they know that support of this idea may lead to ANOTHER white supremacist committing a desperate act under the misguided notion that he or she is “saving the country“…but they lie anyway, because these people VOTE FOR THEM, and they know that it distracts people’s attention from the issues the president wants people to focus on.

THOSE INCITING VIOLENCE AMONG THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR FINANCIAL REASONS:

• Lobbyists and PR Firms: These groups are easy to understand.  They are paid MILLIONS every year to do three simple things.  One…they must wine, dine, and provide campaign contributions to politicians, in exchange for the politicians support of the health care industry.  Two…they must place tv and radio spots that will convince the American people to accept the positions of the health care industry, EVEN IF those positions are contrary to the person’s own self-interest.  Three…they must organize demonstrations and events filled with people who will disrupt any attempt to discuss health care reform…and to give the false impression that most people in America don’t want health care reform.  They are doing all these things…and they do them very well.  They don’t care about politics…they have no ethical or philosophical position on health care…they don’t even care about the best interests of Americans.  They care about one things…getting paid.  America’s Health Insurance Plans…FreedomWorks…Americans for Prosperity…Conservatives for Patients’ Rights…these groups and others, funded by the corporate, health care, industrial complex, are organizing groups of the most uninformed/misinformed 30% of our population, pumping them full of disinformation (attacks that they KNOW to be false, but effective) to get them scared and angry, and coordinate events where these groups can vent all of their anger and ignorance in the most violent and disrespectful manner possible.  To these groups…this represents “a job well done” and there is no consideration for possible violent outcomes…for deaths…for destruction.

Now, of course…these categories represent over-simplifications.  Rush certainly also gains politically and financially from stirring the emotions of America’s most uninformed demographic.  The politicians I mentioned also benefit financially, in terms of contributions from the insurance industry lobbyists, when they choose to play to their constituents’ baser instincts.

And one thing that they ALL have in common…is that they are thinking of the benefit of themselves, their political party, their company, their bank account…with a wanton and complete disregard for the dangerous, event violent consequences of their actions.

And our “watchdogs,” in the media…are all but asleep.  For example, Palin’s claims of “death panels” that would take the lives of her parents and her baby…were so obviously false, and so obviously intended to do nothing more than scare the more ignorant members of our society, and to spur them to extreme actions.  Any objective news anchor or outlet would be completely justified in condemning the statement in the harshest terms possible…some non-objective, CONSERVATIVE pundits even did so.  But where was the mainstream media to clearly inform the public of its absurdity and recklessness?  As this columnist points out, the reaction from the press was to quote Palin’s comment, and perhaps to describe it as “harsh” or “controversial“….but they would not go so far as to even mention that it is FALSE, which lends the statement unintended credence.  As this columnist writes…the reaction to Rush Limbaugh’s comparisons between Obama and Hitler, were SHAMEFUL in their timidity.  As with the Iraq War, the press is again failing in its straightforward obligation to provide the public with INFORMATION…and when a political or celebrity pundit makes statements that are 1) patently false, and 2) designed to incite hatred and violence, it is the job of the press to inform the public of both the FACTS and to warn against the THREAT to our civil order.

In this…the ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN/FOX news, and a majority of the daily newspapers are as culpable as the fearmongers, as they seem to have ceded their responsibilities to liberal pundits and online bloggers, WHO CAN NOT DO THE JOB ALONE.

On that note, I will leave you with one such liberal pundit…speaking eloquently to this very issue.  Here’s Keith Olbermann’s latest “Special Comment:”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c-UxRfmtiI