John McCain Has Been Courting the Black Vote

That's "black" as in "black helicopter."

But now he's not sure if he's supposed to want it.

I find this all tremendously disheartening but unsurprising. I think many Americans fail to appreciate how toxic the right-wing populism of Fox News, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh really is. Heaven knows that there's a place for thoughtful conservative voices in our political culture: I daresay we need them now more than ever. But the Fox-Rush-Hannity trifecta represents the dumbing down of conservative thought in the US. It's a shame, really. The NY Times' own token conservative, David Brooks, has lamented precisely this de-evolution of conservative thought. But it's not just that the Fox-Rush-Hannity crowd dumbs down complex political ideas: it's that they (a) lead their devotees to believe that by listening to their programs they therefore know all they need to know about any given issue; and (b) demonize anyone who disagrees with them. The result is a pernicious echo-chamber culture whose inhabitants become absolutely unhinged when dealing with anyone that doesn't share their world-view. Of course one can find equally unsavory things on the political left as well. But the rhetoric at Obama / Biden rallies hasn't become nearly as incendiary and borderline violent as it has with the McCain / Palin crowd. Thoughtful conservatives should be just as dismayed at this kind of thing as liberals.