(Un)Civil War

Shouts of "terrorist," "treason," and most disturbing, "kill him" now are routinely heard when Barack Obama's name is mentioned at McCain/Palin campaign events. It happened today in Pennsylvania, ironically the promised land for escaped slaves in the time of the Underground Railroad, now sadly one of the solid bases of racism and ignorance in America. But now that an Obama victory seems inevitable, given the low-road lying of McCain/Palin and the Republican campaign's inability to offer anything but more of the same, this ignoble degradation of our civil discourse has taken on an ominous tone.

Will the partisan right accept a President Obama any more than the partisan left accepted President Bush? Aren't we just setting the stage for another cycle of bitter divide? And now that racism, accusations of treason and terrorism, and threats of lynching have become part of the Republican campaign's identity, how will this fury dissipate after November 4, or January 21?

After Bush was re-elected, what you heard from the partisan left is that America was lost, and defecting to a place like Canada seemed like a good idea. I fear that the frenzy being whipped up in the right wing now will lead not to declarations of defection, but to declarations of war.

The partisan right now revels in a dangerous combination of racism, militarism, nationalism, and divine providence. It seems likely to me that when their worst fears are realized in President Barack Obama, some faction of those right-wing nutjobs will not be content to whine and dream of Canada. They will take up their bitterness, their guns, and their religion, and declare the next civil war.

As economic collapse looms, we must prepare ourselves for the chaos that will flow from the declaration: "That terrorist is not my President."