If you think it's bad now you should have been there when us "liberals" were screamed at and physically threatened on a daily basis. Back then it was obvious just by the clothes and hair what side you were on.......The difference is that nowadays the right wing hatred is spread over the airways, there was always an audience for this in bars and places where unhappy people congregate. Since Reagan eliminated the fairness doctrine we now have personal self hatred projected on others as a way of life.

A lot of people need to hate because they have never really come to terms with basic flaws in their personal character and have turned to cultish hatred of others (blacks, gays,liberals et al) to avoid their own personal crisis of humanity. For parents approaching late middle age it is particularly disconcerting as they have really gone into a kind of reverse development. At some point in their lives when faced with making some real choices about "love tolerance and truth" they opted for the easier achieved position of blaming and fear. Age should confer wisdom based on life experience, not a retreat into a self absorbed general hatred of things one does not understand. I saw this happened with my parents, my mother moved toward the light and my father moved toward the darker vision. In a way he became a errant child from then on.

The good news is that one can usually keep a sense of humor about it. Just hold fast to the cardinal rule: NEVER TALK POLITICS OR RELIGION with family members. Although it may be tempting and fun it always results in the kind of nastiness that Wheaton experienced, usually fueled by booze and hormones.