Last week Jimmy Carter was answering a question about heightened racial “hate speech” and violent themes seen at rallies since Obama took office on Brian Wilson’s NBC Nightly News.

I think Carter was suggesting that the chutzpah Joe Wilson needed to say “You Lie” in a Joint Session of Congress was based on Carter’s belief that many southern American’s are racist and that they believe “that an African American could not be qualified to lead this great nation” much less be in a position of respect.

Joe Wilson, like many others, was born in a segregated South and probably never expected that President of the United States America would be an African American.

Many people would feel comfortable to confront or correct a subordinate when they believe a mistake was made but most would bite their tongue when a superior makes the same mistake.

Recently, Presidents Clinton and Obama have taken the political high ground and left Carter to blew in the wind by himself again. They have answered questions about Carter’s comments by suggesting that the protesters haven’t been racist because they have always been against health care reform and that Obama was “black before the election” when he was elected so the American people must not be concerned about that.

But when did the conservative rallies begin? I don’t remember them in the 1990’s. I don’t ever remember bringing guns to “Free Speech” zones that Bush created for demonstrators miles away from events. I don’t remember when politics was so polarizing and hateful, full of lies and deceit.

It scares me that so many stories, based on so little, can be repeated so many times in emails, on signs and by elected politicians, especially, but not limited to the “Birthers” and “Deathers”. Is this the best that billions in think tanks can create for the right to talk about? Don’t they care about the country enough to have an honest debate about anything?

People that usually wouldn’t bother to put down their Budweiser to answer the door are picketing and marching because they are positive that the America they love is gone because an election wasn’t stolen by the white guy supporting corporate interests but won by a brilliant, honest, middle-class kid that had a black Muslim father and named him Barrack Hussein Obama.

Mike Nicer