What To Expect, It Only Gets Worse From Here

2008 saw some of the most grotesque political behavior in a long, long time.  The last time America witnessed such extremism was in the 1960s when interracial marriage was illegal in most of the country.  Segregation was law.  Blacks were treated like second-class citizens and were specifically told where they could and couldn't be served.  And when Jim Crow disenfranchised most anyone who wasn't a white male from voting.

We are a far cry from such a world today.  Those of us who weren't alive back then can't even comprehend such a place.

Equality has come a long way.  Blacks no longer have to be subjected to areas designated for them.  They can play professional sports, eat where they like.  People of different skin colors can marry.  Jim Crow is gone.  The apartheid is over.  We have a black president.  A racially and gender-divided America largely no longer exists today. Maybe it's better to state the fears of the right wing extremists in the 60s have been fully realized-- equality is greater than at any other time in American history.  The world the racists feared in the 60s is here and that is what's driving them today.

But that very same behavior from 50 years ago isn't over.  We saw it in 2008 when people attending Republican political rallies called Barack Obama a "nigger" and carried signs calling him much more incendiary things.  Numerous times people attending GOP events called for the death of Obama; called him a terrorist; and a socialist.  All that was present and so much more in 2008.  And guess what?  It will be worse in 2012.

If you want a flashback to 2008 just to get a glimpse of how bad it's going to get, here's a post from Oct. 30, 2008.  Times that by 2 and you'll get what 2012 is going to look like.