The Civil War may have been won by the North, but in truth the South never emotionally conceded.
The Town Hall mobs, the birthers, the teabaggers are all part of that long line of "coded" agitators for the notions of white entitlement and "conservative values."
Of course, this conservative viewpoint values cheap labor and unabated use of natural resources over technological and economic innovation. It also -- and this is its hot molten core -- fundamentally believes that white people are born with a divine advantage over people of other skin colors, and are chosen by God to lead the heathen hordes.
Of course, when you start stirring the pot of race -- in order to preserve the status quo of entrenched power and wealth -- you emerge with a stew of hate boiling over and ready to explode into full-fledged violence.
The other America, the North -- led by Lincoln -- stayed true to the values of the Constitution, the one ratified in Philadelphia, and the Declaration of Independence. The America that Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh speak so nostalgically yearn for is a bait and switch: what they want is the Constitution and "old-fashioned" white entitlement values of the Confederacy. (Although most of the right wing media hate talkers are really just in it for the money, paid to divert whites squeezed in the middle to blame "the others" (minorities and immigrants) for their financial problems and not the corporations who are stealing their jobs, or the wealthy who are stealing their incomes due to tax cuts for the rich and legal investment schemes that amount to looting.)
It doesn't have to be this way. The corporations and "K Street" lobbyists are pulling the emotional strings and simmering frustrations of mostly Republicans, in order to intimidate already "in the tank" elected officials in D.C. (and regulatory agencies), and the re-emergence of the Confederate nation from time to time is meant to cause chaos, confusion and distraction from the vital issue facing America: who controls it, corporations and entrenched wealth or the American people?
So, as the health care reform debate gets bogged down in the tale of two nations, as the stoking of the coals of hate and division (by the right wing media on behalf of the corporations who own the outlets and corporate America in general) reach a frenzied dangerous peak, the issues of importance to the Americans loyal to the Constitution ratified by the last state in 1788 fall victim to a sideshow.
Racism and the Neo-Confederacy are like a thermometer. The big media companies and their GOP allies can turn it up or down.
Right now, they have it up full blast. They are betting the house on wounding Obama's presidency, just as they did to Bill Clinton.
In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell is on exhibit. It has a wide permanent crack and can never be rung again as it will likely shatter in two.
Is this the fate of America?
Wasn't this supposed to be resolved by Lee's surrender in 1865?
Apparently not.
