Katherine Kersten's Korner

In today's kolumn she gives a little history lesson on how a politically split country is typical. The fact that she can do this sounding like an impartial observer instead of sounding like the cog in the Republican noise machine that she is, is pretty incredible.

Wingnuttia Level: 7 (My head hurts...)

And what is Kersten's party currently doing? Why, they are trying to keep people from voting or otherwise engage in dirty tricks. Proud about the Republican role in polarization, Kersten?

Then there is the issue of relevance. Recently, a former Bush speechwriter wrote an editorial about all the liberals he hates. What struck me most about the article was the fact that he pointed to virtual nobodies: does anybody know who Nicholas De Genova and Kevin Barrett are? The people I recognized from the list, like Ward Churchill (favorite whipping boy of the right) and Harry Belafonte (seriously?) aren't running for office, aren't Democratic leaders, and really have no constituency at all. Ted Turner? Give me a break. These people aren't responsible for discourse in this country. They do not sway opinions.

So when Kersten says that "Republican visions of Democratic control hint at cultural free fall, tax rates hovering around 95 percent, and Fidel Castro as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice", does this reflect reality at all? Is there a single Democrat who has come out for 95% tax rates? Or support for Fidel Castro? These positions do not exist, yet she believes that this stereotype is somehow valid.

Contrast that with the vision that Democrats have, "images of America as a totalitarian theocracy, where the Rove-Cheney politburo dictates secret orders through coded messages to millions of mindless evangelicals." Well, to tell you the truth, there are plenty of Republicans who are in favor of basing our government on Christianity, Mary Kiffmeyer and Michelle Bachmann among them. There are no secret order; this is all done in the open. Democrats really aren't hallucinating things here. The most extreme Republicans do believe in a quasi-theocracy and torture for just about anybody who could be a terrorist; the same can't be said about the most extreme Democrats.

So yes, Kersten, polarization is nothing new. But to pretend that you have nothing to do with it is ridiculous.