Today, on Halloween morning, I went for breakfast to my favorite redneck diner here in rural Pennsylvania, where anti-Obama propaganda flourishes but politicians are severely criticized for even mentioning that intolerance exists. I passed the “Nobama” yard placards, giant “Obama Equals Socialism” and “Real Christians Vote Republican” road signs, and a parking lot full of bumper stickers like “This is an Obama-free zone. Mention his name and I’ll drop you where you stand”, “Whiz kid: pee on Obama”, “F**k Obama” and linking Obama to terrorism or comparing him to a monkey. (For more of these lofty pronouncements, see http://shop.cafepress.com/anti-obama?cmp=KAC-G-PO-Anti-Obama-Anti-Obama and http://www.mccainpowell.com/.)

You can’t deny the difference between the two camps’ rhetoric. Although they may exist, I haven’t seen a single Democratic placard or bumper sticker that goes beyond “Obama/Biden”, “Had Enough: Vote Democratic” and variations on the “Change” theme. But hatred, vilification, intolerance, racism and ethnocentricity abound on the Republican side (not among all Republicans, of course). The great divide between conservatives and liberals has less to do with principles and issues than the fact that a certain segment of society can only preserve their own self-regard by hating others. “Dirty Libs” have simply joined African-Americans, Hispanics, women, foreigners and intellectuals as targets.

Liberals who have spent their lives among educated middle-class peers are frequently unaware of the extent of the problem, and referring to it out loud is politically incorrect. Witness the flap when PA governor Ed Rendell said that some voters in his state would not vote for a black man, and when PA Representative John Murtha said that there is still some racism in western PA. Murtha is in danger of losing his seat over the incident. Why? Probably because his few liberal constituents are scandalized by the mention of the indelicate subject, and the conservative majority is angry about being outed.

As someone who grew up among poor, ignorant, anti-education, racist whites, I can tell you that those sentiments are alive and well. The white, inner-city Philadelphia neighborhood I come from is filled with abandoned houses, crime, and the unemployed. But in a recent NPR report, every voter interviewed there endorsed McCain, and said that NO ONE they knew was voting for Obama. They are victims of the brilliantly executed Republican strategy of convincing the working class that they, defenders and promoters of the corporatocracy, are on the side of the poor, and not elitist, intellectual, arugula-eating liberal Democrats. And because they reject education, they are victims of their own ignorance.

I believe it is important to acknowledge the evils of intolerance in order to fight them-good people ignoring Nazism did not make it go away. Obama’s strategy of ignoring race seems to have worked, but if he wins, it will have more to do with swing voters worried about the effect the Bush presidency has had on their pocketbooks for the last eight years than any changes in basic political beliefs and values. There is also something to be said for attrition: the younger generation, on average, is less racist than the older generation, and the older generation will die. But as we have seen, new targets of intolerance can always be found.

As I entered the diner this morning, I was conspicuous wearing my black-and-orange Obama Halloween pin. One big guy, who later left in a car with a “McCain not Hussein” bumper sticker, aggressively stared me down. I was glad I was there for breakfast instead of supper, and didn’t have to walk back to my energy-efficient Democratic car in the dark. Although I was slightly intimidated, a part of me longed to jump out, spread my black coat and yell “Boo! In five days you’re gonna have a BLACK PRESIDENT!

Now THAT would have scared them.

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