This is a bit long but very much worth the watch. Rachel and Jonathan Alter discuss the racialized rhetoric, the Republican strategy, and the political pattern that the current wave of unhinged and uncooth behavior is part of.
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In this video, Jonathan Alter hesitates to paint all of the “You Lie” groupies as racist. But it seems so obvious that Joe Wilson’s tantrum is appealing to exactly that part of his admirers’ mentality. I think Maureen Dowd got it right: what they all are thinking is “You lie, Boy!”
I don’t often disagree with Barney Frank, but I think the House needs a clearly drawn line, and a policy of letting its members know they shouldn’t be jerks.
Pretty much true about the right-wing fringe, although the Birchers didn’t just go after Democrats – some of them accused President Eisenhower of being a communist agent!