1)G.M. Ross of Navarrre: “How did a socialist Republican-in-name-only like Gov. Charlie Crist ever get embraced by and elected into office?”

Crist is not a socialist. Period.

Man, until Obama got into office, I’d forgotten the automatic tendency of some right-wingers to label everyone they don’t like a socialist (or a communist). Since they were screaming it during the campaign with no results, I’d naively assumed they’d give up on that tactic. After all, there are people eligible to vote who don’t even remember when the USSR existed, let alone remember the Cold War; it’s the kind of rallying cry that works best on very old, very conservative people.

But then again, we have so many of those around here.

Then we have FWB’s April Bryant who opens with a long rant about how mean left-wingers were to people under Bush (no suggestion that those cries of “traitor” might be comparably divisive) and adds “as long as you agree with the left you’re free to speak. Otherwise, you are intolerant or extreme. What hypocrites!”
I’m sorry if poor Mr. Masick’s feelings were hurt by his side being criticized, but being told you’re intolerant or extreme doesn’t deny him or anyone else their freedom to speak. It just means that if they say something other people object to, they can expect to be called on it.
Next: “Why is it OK for a black person to disagree with a white president, but when a white person disagrees with President Obama, it’s racism … It is what it is—a disagreement about policy and ideology, not skin color.”
Certainly a lot of times—most I suspect—it is a disagreement about policy.
A lot of times, however, it’s also a disagreement about skin color. The sign mentioned in my previous post can hardly be seen as a racism-free discussion of the merits of health care. Nor can those campaign buttons about “If Obama wins, can we call it the White House?” or Jonah Goldberg claiming that whites are just voting for Obama out of a fear of race riots if he loses.
Likewise, a lot of the reaction over Obama’s Islamic roots, Christianity and his alleged softness toward Islam relate not to policy differences about dealing with Islamic terrorism but to religious bigotry: The tone often comes down to Obama not hating or wanting to wage war on Islam. And part of that, I suspect, is also racist, the whole thing about a lot of Muslims being so dark-skinned.

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