Republicans Gotta Have Someone to Hate

Horace Mann wrote, "Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge."

Immigration is racism writ large - the "Southern Strategy" reanimated to stoke fear, resentment and loathing (not against African-Americans who are now protected from such rank hatred openly expressed)but against our brown American neighbors from the south.

Bigotry against minorities is not only acceptable, but is encouraged by the Republican base (and the basest of Republicans). The targets change as each previous target minority has won its civil rights. This season the attack is not only on gay Americans, but also even more against Mexicans, thinly veiled under the pretense of "illegal."

Gotta have some minority to hate! Gotta have have some group that supposedly threatens the White Christian Male social fabric of America by having the audacity to want to be treated like humans. The Cross has replaced the Lynching Tree as a symbol designed to create fear in the dispossessed.

But what if one of those (insert minority here) moves next door, or marries your daughter, or wants your dangerous low-wage job, or prays to a different God, or gets on the same elevator as you? How can the Constitution be amended to keep us secure from this terrorism? Let's use the Cross in place of the Lynching Tree.

Republicans gotta have someone to hate to prop up their eternal emptiness.