Just how ugly is it going to get?

Yesterday I read a column by David Frum that frankly disturbed me. He talked about the fact that a Fox News moderator said the following:

Obama is now out of the closet … he's officially gay for class warfare.

Frum then goes on to explain the context.

It's very important to understand that for Fox viewers, Fox is only the most visible part of a vast alternative reality. Fox's coverage of the news cannot be properly understood in isolation, but only in conjunction with the rest of that system—and especially the chain emails that do so much to shape the worldview of Fox viewers.

You cannot "get" Gutfeld's joke unless you "get" that a large part of his audience ardently believes that Obama is in fact gay, that his marriage is a sham, and that Mrs. Obama leads a life of Marie Antoinette like extravagance to compensate her for her husband's neglect while he disports himself with his personal aides.

And finally, he gives examples...like what happens when you google obama + gay + "reggie love."

Remember - this is coming from someone who, as a conservative, is "inside" the system in a way that many of us are not. And he's trying to warn us about what's going on under the radar.

Its ugly out there folks!!!

I thought of all of that this morning when - in a couple of different places - I ran across people talking about a new entry in the Urban Dictionary for Harry Reid. I won't quote it directly, but it basically refers to "an explosion of reports" saying that Reid is a serial pederast.

This is the kind of thing that's circulating via emails and off-the-beaten-track web sites (although the Daily Caller has a story on the Urban Dictionary definition).

I'm not writing about this to gin up our rage. I frankly think that's a waste of time. But we DO need to know that this stuff is out there and understand how the system for communicating it works.

And we need to see it for what it is...the white male patriarchal system in its death throes.

As I've said before, after the Bush/Cheney years, the Republican Party had a choice to make...whether to rethink their position or stoke the fear. They chose the later and have unleashed the beast. I hold the people who made that decision as responsible for this as those who propagate it directly.

P.S. If you need some cleansing after all that trash, go check out Chipsticks' diary about the beauty that was on display at the Obama rally in Colorado yesterday. Our beauty trumps their ugly...every time!

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.