Civil War

Civility was stillborn at the dawn of politics. So the frothing ad hominem nature of the recent debate on health care and the economy is not surprising. Nor is this country's trenchant racism coupling with rabid anti-communism anything new. The KKK has always hated niggers and communists equally. The spectrum has only shifted slightly in that black is the new red. It was naive to think that racism would dissolve in the glow of Obama's election.

Politicians have been calling each other liars since the birth of the Republic, but never has a Southern, confederate sympathizing representative called a black President a liar on the floor of the House. And precisely the fact that we've never had a black President until now amplifies Joe (not his real name) Wilson's tantrum. What's the answer to the question as to why we haven't had a black President until now? Racism, duh. Ignoring the historical context of a white southerner denouncing a black President in a House divided is not rational given the overwhelming history of slavery and apartheid in this country. Well over half a million Americans died in the civil war, to say nothing of the horrors of the Atlantic passage and the "peculiar institution." This is just not the same thing as booing a white President.