via MAL Contends

When an American politician in the presidential general election campaign says his/her opponent is out-of-the-mainstream, it's a lie.

The losing opponent will garner at least some 45 percent of the vote, disconfirming out-of-the-mainstream status, though election votes are imprecise indicators of public opinion.

The complex reality of the American political culture sees support for universal health care, social security for our seniors, full employment, as well as a mass base for fascism, racist policies at home, a decided antipathy to civil liberties, and near-genocidal wars of aggression abroad, amid what can most accurately be described as a depoliticized electorate.

But the he's-not-like-us charge is aimed at the person; a personal attack that the opponent is somehow alien, out-of-touch, different, elitist, not-of-this-culture, even malicious and the related charge that he/she is dangerous and unpredictable.

Wrote a few posts at Daily Kos, Folkbum and MAL Contends about the racist Jim Broussard cutting down and stealing an American flag on someone's private property in Reno, Nevada, last week, while brandishing a military knife, and daring anyone to take the flag back.

Most of the hostile e-mail and comments spoke indignantly of the failure of "they (Mexicans)/them" to assimilate into our country, and misstating First Amendment doctrine and the rights of freedom generally. Below is an e-mail that is my personal favorite and the most revealing.

The e-mail still has me wondering if someone can actually be that dumb, and it sounds like something a couple of friends would say when they mock racists and other assorted ignoramuses: