There are disturbed folks out there who feel slipping away their America (traditional, secure, imperial, White). They took heart with the figure of Sarah Palin when the national crisis became apparent and the election was in doubt.
They've embraced and are manipulated by a Republican leadership that rejects positive change and whose only goal is to bring down the President and party that represent it.
Right now the GOP and other ptbs are orienting that fear of change against health care reform, the issue of the day. But that's not all there is to it. Not by a long shot.
Those disturbed folks are becoming more hysterical. Secure in their party's support, they become much more intolerant of contrary opinions, less fearful of their own irrationality, of the lack of substance in their arguments, less apprehensive about making fools of themselves publicly, less concerned about negative outcomes,
more willing to assay intimidation,
potentially more willing to take the law into their own hands.
Key to this is change of mood is the fact that they are receiving activist exhortations, mobilization, destinations, talking points and rhetorical flourishes, from the opposition party.
Actions have consequences. The GOP and its leaders need to assume formal public responsibility for the emergent movement they are inspiring and directing, and for any consequences, whatever these may be. And they need to be called on this. And so does the media, insofar as it continues to treat the political scene as a discussion between two responsible parties. And so does our own leadership, some of it anyway.