Isn’t it fascinating that according to the fellow travelers of the Tea Bag Brigade and right wing blogs, that being a liberal is tantamount to being stupid, an idiot, the bane of all civilization, brain-washed, a second cousin to a commie and the cause of all of our problems? In other words the majority of the educated, who come from some of the better schools in America, and have liberal or moderate views are either stupid, anti-American or a commie.

Are these thoughts ever backed up? These specious ideas are always backed up by the revelations of scripture, or some rational from an “arm chair general” spewing banalities, or some deprecating insult. Every one on Social Security or Medicare is a blood-sucker, being poor is a crime, taking welfare or food stamps is disgusting and un-American and fighting for the unions, women or minorities is obviously a Marxist. Is there any beef to those arguments? Of course not! But the liberals who support conservation, anti-child labor laws, clean air and water, fair housing, social safety nets, sex education and hygiene and gender equality are all commies about to tear down America.

But why do people like me label these people the “lunatic fringe?” Because anybody who bolsters their arguments with name calling, insults, slander, “birther” nonsense, and other claptrap, are card-carrying members of the “lunatic fringe.”

But, what do we hear or read from these “fringers?” The president is a Marxist, a commie, a Kenyan rat, not a citizen, illegitimate, a liar, a shredder of the Constitution and worse. I won’t lower myself to repeat the crude remarks that are rife on these sites and their clones.

So we have two Americas. One group of Americans are located on the coast lines, New England, the big cities, the college campuses, the wealthier suburbs, and the rust belt union communities. They are the conservationist, the well-educated, immigrants and yes, the poor. They are open minded, tolerant regarding race and religion and moderate in their lifestyle. The Democrats have always worked for the poor and new Americans. Has that failed us? No, it hasn’t. They seem to be the active majorities in the hated and obviously “stupid” Blue States.

What is the other America? Well it is centered in the Red States, amongst the aging Eurocentrics, It is amongst the flat-earth, flat-tax thinkers, who believe that sales taxes are not regressive, that Social Darwinism winnows out the week, and that all people who work for government are blood-suckers. It is centered among the mythology folks, who believe that the media is controlling the news, that the left-wing and the Jews control everything, and that all minorities and immigrants are criminals, degenerates and welfare recipients. The other America believes in conspiracies centered around; FEMA prisons for dissidents, fluoride in the water, aliens in Area 51, and even the belief that we never landed on the Moon. They often are Bible-thumpers, who take the scripture literally from mouths of their Evangelical preachers.

What a pathetic situation we have entered into where one half of the nation hates the other, questions their patriotism, Americanism, and legitimacy. As a Democrat, I do not hate Republicans; I support the two-party system, capitalists, the military and the right to own guns. As long as the far right is going to excoriate liberals, moderates and the open-minded by spewing hatred, we will believe and label them and their acolytes the “lunatic fringe.”