Let me be clear from the start, the internment of 110,000 Japanese American citizens and residents is not exactly the same as the recent effort to stop the construction of mosques in Manhattan and elsewhere in the nation, but it is on the same spectrum, just like bigotry, prejudice and ethic hate are on the same spectrum.

It is one of our nation’s greatest shames that we interred our fellow citizens without any due process and merely because of their ethnicity. In the words of President Regan in the official apology was done in a fit of

“race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership”

.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The conditions were shockingly similar to the ones that are driving the Radical Right to insist that a community center two blocks from the Trade Center Plaza (where the Twin Towers used to stand) is somehow a victory terrorists. Let’s try a little experiment, see if you can tell who said the following:

"A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched… So, a Muslim American born of Muslim parents, nurtured upon Muslim traditions, living in a transplanted Islamic atmosphere… notwithstanding his nominal brand of accidental citizenship almost inevitably and with the rarest exceptions grows up to be a Muslim, and not an American… Thus, while it might cause injustice to a few to treat them all as potential enemies, I cannot escape the conclusion… that such treatment… should be accorded to each and all of them while we are at war with their race

“I want my country back!” shouts the lady at a Town Hall meeting about Health Care Reform. She is obviously distraught, and sincere in her feelings. She is not alone; we have seen this cry over and over again from the radical Right. How did it get to the point that voters for the radicalized Republican Party feel like they have lost their nation? On the one hand there is an easy answer, there is a African American President and the folks who are saying these things are racist or bigoted enough that it is making them crazy. But is it that stark? Yes, the Tea Party and the radical Right movement have racist elements, but could there really be that many of them who truly are basing plea for a return of their country on race?

I don’t like simple answers. Especially simple answers to complex situations with large numbers of people involved. Could it be this “give me back my country” meme is something more? Take a look at what has happened to the radical Republican Party over the last decade.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The town hall protesters are a symptom of something very dangerous of a long tradition of extreme right wing American militancy that, should it be allowed to once again flourish unchecked, will make the misdeeds of Timothy McVeigh pale into insignificance