If you think voting for republicans will result in 'change' you're deluded, and apparently ignorant of the US government. Even if the republicans win commanding majorities in both houses the won't be repealing 'Obamacare'. He has veto power you know. Same goes with all the other laws passed this past year.
And for the record, I don't think the democrats are a mechanism for change either.

This is the single most overused phrase of the year. Please, I beg of you, stop using it. I'm aware that Glenn Beck said it on his program--sometime before "This president, I think, has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" but after "When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up'"--but really, can you not formulate your own words to describe your hatred of pseudo-universal healthcare?

You're right, there's no touch of xenophobia in the right's paranoia over 'those damn mexicans' 'invading' the US. Nor in their virulent opposition to mosques being built (not just in lower Manhattan either). No sir-ee, no xenophobia here.

"the author's comparisons were driven by prejudgments of a movement they don't understand or relate to"

I fear, my dear Matt, that you and your fundamentalist, reactionary ilk are understood all too well. Your donning of the mantle of victimhood is, frankly, pathetic.

(Your donning of Homer Simpson 18th century hats, fifes and frock-coats ain't exactly dignified and non-laughable either. I mean really, is that any way for normal, sane, well-adjusted adults to behave??)

The USA is in irretrievable and terminal decline and decay.

The Tea-Party and the lunatic, drunken rantings of Beck, Palin et alis are almost classical text-book examples of the symptoms of a sick and cancerous people thrashing about in the death-throes of fin-de-siecle degeneration and apocalypse.

I actually hope that the idiots of the Tea Party get the white trash, "guns and God" revolution that they dream of.

Maybe then, as they eat themselves and their children, they will finally bring about the evangelical "End-Times" apocalypse that they desire. Then Humanity may (at least in this current historical epoch) be purged of their militant madness and absurdity.

Um, sorry, but the "end-times" could be brought about for real by these crazies if they get their finger on the "button" - the end of civilization and the deaths of most of humanity could result. Hence, we have to hope they lose - badly.

I share your concern that the US is in its "death throes" - discourse has degenerated badly, and formerly reasonable people I know are now ranting about "socialism, communism, and the death of freedom" over the issues facing the US today. Interestingly, our Canadian neighbors have socialised medicine, legal abortion, registration of firearms, gays in the military, strict banking regulation, and same-sex marriage. Their society has not collapsed, and they live longer and are happier than we are, according to surveys. But wait! Don't those decisions make them Communists? Shouldn't we destroy them before they take over? Maybe they've taken over already but only the Tea Party knows about it... Nuke em!!! (sarcasm).

My Canadian relatives seem curiously unaware that they are now behind the Iron Curtain.

Anyway, we in the US have become a tinder box waiting for a spark. Imagine a well-executed simultaneous assassination plot of, say, a dozen right-wing notables. This would be blamed on "liberals" and the President and could easily spark the Second Civil War and the death of the US. If our enemies were ten percent as evil and powerful as the Right imagines, they would have done this already (imagine the capabilities of a competent intelligence apparatus, say the Chinese, then tell me this is not possible). The reasons it hasn't happened are several: 1) getting caught would mean certain death, possibly of your entire country, 2) Unintended consequences are un-imaginable, and 3) our enemies aren't as crazy and evil as our right-wingers think, with the exception of Osama and company. With regard to number three, frankly, I'm surprised (and thankful) that Osama hasn't tried this.

Ten years ago I thought (and said) that I considered Civil War likely in the US with dissolution of the nation by 2025. Frankly, I think we're on track, though believe me, I want to be wrong.

Resorting to calling American conservatives "racists" shows how uninformed you are.

Conservatives here have seen enough of President Obama's (and his good-hearted, but dangerously naive administration) "Hope" formula. Its been an utter disaster. Turning the United States into France economically has gotten Americans fearing for our financial future and the future of our children.

By the way, For Vice-President Al Gore's father (a former Sentaor) was also a segregationists and voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Democrat Senator Robert is the only sitting US Senator who's a former member of the racist group, the KKK. I challenge you to look it up for yourself

You know you've defeated an intellectually lazy liberal in a debate when they resort to calling you or your position "racist"

Preston, that's really quite pathetic.

The reason that the Fancy Dress Partiers get called racists is due to all the attacks on Obama, which relied upon questioning his place of birth (gee, this dark-skinned guy can't be a good 'ol Christian American like us can he?), questioning his religion etc or in other words using the same attempts to delegitimatize him based upon his innate IDENTITY which is exactly the same kind of essentialist, stereotypical "thinking" which characterizes racist thought.

It's obvious that for you such words as "liberal", "socialist", or indeed for some utterly bizarre reason, "France" operate as reflexive swear-words.

It's this kind of MANICHEAN, right-wing Maoist simple-mindedness that characterizes the schizoid-affective, reptile "mind" of the Fox "News" fundamentalist, Tolkeinesque, Tea-Partier.

An example of your childlike simplicity is found in earlier post.Simply because, you're able to point to a number of Jim Crow Democrats, you somehow think that you've escaped the charge of racism - or more accurately "essentialism" - when you in fact all you've done is put on show the kind of warlike, psychotic friend/enemy mentality that characterizes NRA shot-gun wielding ferrets like you and your ilk.