1. This thread proves that Salon needs to have some moderation of its comment threads. To see this one deteriorate into a poop-slinging barrage of "You're such a fag" and "spank your monkey" comments punctuated by threats to execute Republicans is utterly nauseating. I look forward to Salon as a place of intelligent discourse, not the kind of unhinged filth I can see on extremist websites on both sides.

2. That said, it is clear that what we have playing out here is an egregious double standard exacerbated by the terror felt by the Right. On one hand, we had a catastrophic Bush presidency marked by incompetence, attacks on the Constitution, a war supported by illegal lies to Congress, the destruction of our economy through complete disregard for regulation (ex: Enron), and more crimes than I can list here. On the other, we have Obama, who is not even nine months into his first term and has millions calling for his head already. The fact is, the man walked into a shitstorm of no-win situations left by Bush: Afghanistan, a staggering economy, a healthcare disaster and climate change.

I think as the duly elected chief executive, the man deserves the same chance Bush had (who had a far less impressive background and was imposed upon us by the Supreme Court) to try to do his job. If he proves himself to be as utterly corrupt and inept as his predecessor, then he should be thrown out. But if he proves he can handle the problems, then wouldn't that be good for the country, Republicans?

Don't you care about what's good for the country? Or do you only care about having people back in power who parrot your biases and fears...who have the same skin color?

Then there's the terror factor. Existential terror. You have a demographic of aging rural and blue collar white folks who have spent generations self-fueling their own resentment of "the man" to enable themselves to tolerate a society in which their culture, opportunities and future are disappearing. We are becoming more educated, more urban, more gay, more colored, more high-tech and more diverse...in other words, leaving the Town Hall screamers in the past with crappy jobs and no futures. The natural response: CREATE AN ENEMY. The Christians have been doing it for 40 years now, somehow managing the incredible feat of legerdemain that they are an oppressed minority in a country where they are the MAJORITY. When you perceive yourself as being irrelevant to the direction of your nature, you create foes to make yourself feel relevant.

So when you add a black president, Democrats back in power after 12 years of Republican demonization and stoking of rural white hate and fear of "libruls," a horrific economy and right wing media machine that feeds on ignorance, this is what you get, what we have right now. Conspiracy theory run riot. Virulent, spitting, violent rhetoric. Tribal behavior at its absolute most grotesquely Gothic. Drooling reprobates like Glenn Beck elevated to guru status.

The thing is, it's all understandable when you consider that we are a tribal, adolescent nation. You rarely if ever see this kind of crazy in Europe; they've been around the block and done it all before. They're the 40 year old guy smoking a Gitanes on a Paris streetcorner who's seen it all. We're a 15-year-old guy who thinks with his balls.

But Obama, the Democrats and the progressive media and activists CANNOT fight fire with fire. We simply can't. There is NO changing minds here or winning hearts. As Bill Maher said, 30% of the country is absolutely insane. WE CANNOT CONVINCE THEM TO GIVE OBAMA A CHANCE NO MATTER WHAT WE SAY. We're dealing with a desperate lust for power on the politicians' side. We're dealing with existential fear brewed with cultural ignorance and economic desperation on the Teabagger side. This Right movement is powered by incoherent rage, myth hardened into fact, and copious amounts of race hatred. No reasoned argument is going to win them over, folks.

The best thing we can do is to a) keep pushing to accomplish the vital goals being sought today: a sustainable economy, healthcare reform, peace, and environmental policy that sustains our planet; and b) fight back with satire. There's a reason Twain, Swift, Voltaire and others are timeless: nothing hurts your enemy more than mocking him. You can't change the minds of his supporters. But you can make him a laughingstock among those who are on the fence.

As progressives who support Obama's chance to prove that he can do the job and who support the elected chief executive, we must believe the the majority of Americans can and will be swayed not by foaming Birthers, Teabaggers and ignorant basement-dwellers screaming about Socialism/Marxism/jihad, but by concrete policy achievements and transparent government (some of which Obama has yet to deliver and had better deliver on or he will lose progressive support). If we as a people cannot be swayed by such things and would rather listen to the impotent morons who pack sidearms at town halls, the Jesus-mouthing hypocrites who manipulate their flocks and the flacks peddling hate books, then I think the American experiment is doomed.

See, guys? A complex commentary unmarred by profane attacks on anyone. Try it sometime.