How did we regress to the point in America where we think there's an equivalence of some kind between trying to "inspire" ethnic minorities and the white majority?

That seems to be the takeaway from Graham's questioning of Sotomayor for her "wise Latina" comment.

Sonya Sotamayor basically said that she was trying to inspire young Latinas to believe in themselves and believe that they have something to add to our society and can make a difference, etc.

If, however, a white judge were to go in front of a mostly white audience of young, would-be lawyers, legislators and future judges, make similar comments about being white, it just wouldn't be equivalent. It would be ugly and racist. It would look like a Klan rally.

Whether people want to acknowledge it or not, there is a huge, huge difference between ethnic MINORITIES and the dominant majority of any nation. Obviously. It's one of those "duh" things. Or should be. It's soooo obvious, it seems to have been lost on much of the GOP.

It looks like Sotomayor walked her comments back, and she shouldn't have to. This nation should be beyond that. We should be mature enough to understand the profound difference between minorities and dominant majorities, the history of racism, discrimination, and just the "real politik" of unequal power distribution.

History tells us there is no danger in a democracy when it comes to inspiring virtually powerless ethnic minorities, and there can be great upside. It also tells us there is great danger in trying to whip up any dominant majority against those minorities.

In short, the powerless minority has, almost by definition, no power to hurt the dominant majority, but the reverse is not the case.

There is no equivalence in Graham's scenario.

In the wake of the Tiller shooting, and the Holocaust memorial killing, I'm seeing a recurring meme coming from the right. It seems to be getting mainstream legs. I also think it just may be an aspect -- perhaps subconsciously -- of the resurgence of the right in recent decades.

Jonah Goldberg, Glenn Beck, the Red State site, etc.

Their claim that Nazism, Fascism and Hitler all come from the left.

In a sense, this gets them off the hook. In their minds, anyway.

When (and where) I was growing up, it was a rare person indeed  who openly called themselves a righty. The sting and taint of Hitler, Nazism, Fascism and WWII were still too apparent. I think people were embarrassed to openly say they were on the same side of the political spectrum.

So, what to do? Completely alter the meaning of well-established terms. Turn things on their heads. Up is down. Left is right. Night is day, etc.

Some knew better, but pushed the meme anyway, and their ignorant supporters were more than willing to follow. What a burden lifted from their shoulders!! No more Hitler, Nazism or Fascism to deal with!! They could be proud and loud once again, and push their reactionary agenda without bringing up ugly ghosts!

Go to just about any blog with a thread that hooks into this, and you'll find large numbers of righties pushing this lie. They can't support it, but they push it. About the only thing they have to go on, of course, is the name.

But what's in a name? There have been hundreds of political parties, if not thousands, in modern times that include terms they have no business including. Totalitarian parties that have "democratic" in their party name, or "people's" or "freedom", etc. Remember Orwell and Newspeak? 

Our Congress passes bills all the time with titles that are just about in direct opposition to the content of those bills. Variations on the theme of "Clear Skies Initiative".

But since "socialist" is in the name the Nazis decided to use, that's enough "evidence" for the right.

Problem is, Hitler and the Nazis, in speech after speech, law after law, deed after deed, went after socialists, liberals and communists with a vengeance. They attacked them, imprisoned them, exiled or killed them. They were adamantly against the left and everything it stood for, and said so repeatedly. They despised the left. Anyone who thinks that name is proof needs to dig deeper. They need to google for quotes by Hitler and those who worked for him. They need to read history about the Third Reich and how it actually operated.

They should also think about other historical facts. Like how leftists from around the world flocked to Spain to fight the Fascists there. Franco and Mussolini were allies of Hitler. Hitler often stated his admiration for Mussolini and his Fascist movement.

Also: Workers never controlled the means of production in Germany. Hitler went after union workers, syndicalists with a vengeance. Capitalism thrived in Germany under Hitler. He imported --  by force, coercion and lies -- millions of foreign workers to help German industry prosper and grow. Treated them like hell. But the big industrialist took major profits and kept them,

Germany under Hitler was the opposite of a "worker's paradise".

America seems to be in the midst of more crazy talk than in the past, and it's been mainstreamed. Progressives need to be aware of this and counter it with facts, evidence, and confidence.

One of the biggest problems with our political discourse today is the sheer volume of lies, distortions and hysterical projection in play. One of the obvious patterns is that the left, in general, engages in fact-based argument, using critical thinking skills, and the right, in general, doesn't.

For eight years, during the Bush presidency, the left argued against his actual policies, criticized his actual actions, proved his policies were bad, ineffectual, sometimes dangerous and usually counterproductive. Time and time again, we marshaled facts, concrete data, and real evidence to support our criticism.

Today, the right engages in hysterical, paranoid flights of criticism, regarding things that Obama has never said, never done, and never will do. The right, in general, never, ever uses facts and evidence to support its batshit crazy claims.

That is not good for America.

For instance, Hannity, Limbaugh, Bachmann, Beck and company have been railing for months now about Obama's supposed desire to create a socialist state. Nothing in Obama's past, nothing in anything he's ever proposed, and nothing that he has done to date even remotely would support such a contention. Obama is a moderate -- at times, even a centrist -- establishment Dem. His economic policies are in no way radical. In fact, many progressives, including yours truly, are disappointed that he hasn't done far more to reverse the right wing slide of the last three decades. While his speeches sound many of the right, progressive notes, his actions have not always coincided. In short, the reality of his presidency is that Obama is no enemy to conservatives in any meaningful way. Would that he were.

Wingnuts have been riling up their nutcase base about Obama's supposed desire to confiscate guns. That has resulted in several recent shootings and the deaths of three Pittsburg police. There is no plan, anywhere, not even a remote whisper of a plan, to confiscate weapons. It flat out doesn't exist. But that hasn't stopped delusional wingnuts from pushing this meme and endangering all of us in the process.

Wingnuts are also pushing the meme that Obama plans to take America off the dollar. Again, that is a figment of their swamp-fever imaginations. There is not even the slightest hint of a remote possibility that Obama would do this. There is not even the slightest hint that he has ever proposed considering it. But that hasn't stopped the fact-free right from pushing the meme.

Wingnuts are up in arms about an Obama nominee, Harold Koh, slandering him and lying about him with a vengeance. Wingnut, serial liar, Rick Santorum, wrote an op-ed article accusing him of things without the slightest attempt to support the accusations. Such as, Koh's supposed desire to allow Sharia law to overtake American law. There is no such desire on Koh's part. It doesn't exist. But that doesn't stop Santorum from lying about it to rile up the wingnut base. In that op-ed Santorum also makes unfounded accusations about Obama's supposed anti-American views:

Watching President Obama apologize last week for America's arrogance - before a French audience that owes its freedom to the sacrifices of Americans - helped convince me that he has a deep-seated antipathy toward American values and traditions. His nomination of former Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer constitutes further evidence of his disdain for American values.

This, of course, is a typical right-wing smear. And, illogical to the extreme. It's also self-evidently, almost hilariously hypocritical. Apparently, to wingnut liars, mere criticism of American history is a sign of antipathy toward America. We had to deal with that in spades during the Bush presidency. Apparently, we're supposed to just shut up and clap louder, and not use our brains. The hypocrisy, of course, comes about when wingnuts rail against the current president, even to the point of fomenting rebellion, and don't see that as exhibiting "antipathy to American values."

 Our media tends to like to split the difference, and work to push false equivalences. As in, both sides do it. Both sides are just as partisan. Both sides tell falsehoods in equal measure. Sorry, but that's yet another lie. Objective people, viewing our crazed political moment, could not possibly agree with that. While in the past the left may have been guilty at times of avoiding facts, evidence and critical thinking skills, for the last few decades, it has been solid in supporting its contentions. The right has never been known for caring much about facts and evidence, but the last thirty years have seen it tumble into the ridiculous, the absurd, the hysterical and the paranoid on an altogether new level. America suffers as a result.

Duncan, over at Eschaton, reminded me of something today. The massive, obvious, blatant double-standards in America and in the Media. Remember how the right went crazy when the Dixie Chicks said the following:

Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.

I'm still ecstatic that Obama defeated Palin and McCain. If they had gotten into power, America would have been lost. I don't think we could have handled four to eight more years of GOP rule. It would have sunk us as a nation. 

That said, I think many of us are beginning to see there may be some downside to Obama being in power. We, as progressives, run the risk of losing steam, focus, justified anger and commitment to fighting the right and the status quo . . . because, in a sense, we won. Sort of. And we don't have Bush to focus our attention on.

The other part of the risk is that we fear being too critical of Obama and the Dems, lest we help their enemies. That actually lets them off the hook to a certain extent. Because we fully realize that the alternative is a thousand times worse, we don't want to help the right in its crazed and irrational blitzkrieg against his administration. Crazed and irrational, for a thousand reasons. But, perhaps the biggest one being:

Obama is a moderate. The Dems in power are moderates. They are governing in a basically moderate, pro-corporate, pro-establishment manner, when we need something more radical. We need them to govern in a pro-worker, pro-environment, green fashion, that puts the needs of the vast majority of us above the desires of the Ruling Elite. They just aren't even remotely what all too many righties think they are. They just aren't even remotely thinking of doing the things that strike fear in the hearts of all too many low-information righties.

Many on the right have been blinded by so much low-rent propaganda, they really can't see how little they have to fear from Obama and the Dems. I, like most progressives, wish Obama and the Dems really would be oppositional to the corporate and military-industrial status quo, to the Ruling Elite, and instead for the vast majority of Americans. If only they really were as far to the left as all too many righties incorrectly believe.

There are signs that the right is mounting a somewhat successful challenge to even the oh so modest changes Obama wants to bring to America. There are also signs that dangerous fanatics, spurred on by despicable and irresponsible public figures like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Bachmann, et al, are flipping out and killing people based on right wing lies and distortions about Obama and liberals in general.

This is no time for complacency. Obviously. Obama's victory will be short-lived and this moment in time wasted if we don't focus our energies and passion against a new rise of the right. I have a terrible feeling that the "conservative" movement will be even more powerful, in some ways, out of official power. Sometimes winning means losing, and losing means winning. Sometimes, people fight harder to get somewhere, something, and ease up once they attain what they think their goals are. My guess is that the right is mobilizing, big time. We on the left have to do the same and never let up.

I caught Maher's rather weak "interview" with Joe the Plumber this past Friday. I was disappointed that Maher didn't roast him for throwing up the usual outworn conservative meme that Obama (or liberals in general) want to raise taxes so he (we) can give money to the undeserving, free-loading poor. Maher should have reframed that. First of all, the tax increase is minuscule, and it comes after Bush cut taxes several times for the wealthy. Second, the best reason for raising taxes on the rich is to invest that money in America. Build roads, bridges, schools, hospitals . . . improve quality of life for everyone through education, health care, the environment, transportation, etc. It's not about "punishing success". It's about the smart allocation of public funds. For the public, for once. What a concept! Actually take public funds and spend it for the public, not for private gain.

Conservative ideology wants us to believe that if we just cut taxes, everything will be great. Even though it has never worked before, in the entire history of America, they want us to believe that suddenly, for the first time, rich folks will take their tax cuts and create jobs. He talked again about how cutting taxes will bring American jobs back. I wish Maher had schooled him in history and math. Basically, if you give a corporation a choice between X and Y, and they can only choose one, corporations will choose X. X being the ability to ship jobs overseas and pay workers 10 cents on the dollar. Y being tax reduction. Even if you cut corporate rates to zero (2/3rds of American corporations paid just that in the last decade anyway), corporations would still ship jobs overseas, because paying 10 cents on the dollar is better than paying zero in taxes. Not to mention the fact that they don't have to pay health care costs overseas, and the regulatory structure is even more lax there than it is here.

It's not taxes, Joe. Taxes aren't the issue. Cutting them won't save jobs, create jobs, or bring jobs back. Taking tax dollars from rich folks will, if that money is spent wisely. Building roads, bridges, hospitals creates jobs here. You can't outsource them. Building up our green infrastructure creates jobs here. You can't outsource infrastructure work. Creating a smart electrical, energy and transportation grid creates jobs here. You can't outsource infrastructure work.

FDR did the right thing. But we actually need to go beyond what he did. Invest virtually all of our budget into creating a 21st century nation. Build it here. This won't happen if the private sector alone is involved. There isn't enough immediate profit in the deal for them. The government has to do it, cuz it doesn't have to make a profit. It can invest without worrying about that. For our future. We all benefit, including the rich.

Finally, when the Joe the Plumbers of this world talk about how they love this country, they need to be held accountable for that empty rhetoric. Nothing they propose would benefit this country. It just benefits roughly 1% of it. Time to counter that nonsense passionately, with confidence and intensity. Our Media should do it, but they won't, cuz they're a part of that 1%.

Joe the Plumber doesn't realize he's being used. The proverbial useful idiot. I just wish more in the Media would counter that and expose it and expose the puppet masters once and for all.