This Is More Than I Anticipated

As I believe one will discover from reading my archives, one of my less mature reasons for wanting Barack Obama to be elected President was to irritate my less tolerant southern brethren. I grew up in the deep south, and am quite aware that the prospect of an African-American intellectual from a big northern city with an Arabic name would push just about every xenophobic button they have. After having received more than a few beatings at their hands as a child, I saw Obama's election as a very mild measure of revenge. What I did not expect, and what makes me question the flippancy of my earlier statements, is precisely how nutty they've become. Now they aren't concentrated exclusively in the South, but there are a fairly substantial number of people getting on TV right now who are, how shall describe this delicately, psychologically marginal. And the people who are egging them on are either a) conscienceless monsters, b) psychopaths, or c) both.

I really hope no one gets shot. But I'm beginning to think someone will.