Up until a few weeks ago, Kathleen Parker orbited on the outer edge of wingnut commentators -- content to make a career as a moderately well known, second-tier purveyor of red meat to the Republican masses.
Then came her Saul on the Road to Tarsus moment -- the day the scales fell from her eyes, and she realized exactly what kind of company she was keeping.
On Sept. 26, Parker opined what many people were thinking -- that Sarah Palin was "out of her league" as a vice presidential nominee. The masses that lapped up her previous material turned on her with a vengeance...
Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn’t, I should "off" myself.
Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down.
Who says public discourse hasn’t deteriorated?
The scales have fallen from Parker's eyes -- and in today's Washington Post, she called out Palin for whipping the brownshirts into a frenzy.
I strongly encourage you to read her entire column, a frank and honest discussion of the "high pitched (dog) whistle" tactics used by Republican politicians and pundits to connect with the base. Her conclusion is particularly damaging:
Neither McCain nor Palin would dare mention Obama's middle name, Hussein, but they can play up Obama's past associations and let others connect the dots. Terrorist. Muslim. Dangerous. Other.
It is legitimate to question character and dubious associations -- and William Ayers is certifiably dubious. The truth is, Obama should have avoided Ayers, and his denouncement of Wright was tardy. But this is a dangerous game.
The McCain campaign knows that Obama isn't a Muslim or a terrorist, but they're willing to help a certain kind of voter think he is. Just the way certain South Carolinians in 2000 were allowed to think that McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh was his illegitimate black child.
But words can have more serious consequences than lost votes and we've already had a glimpse of the Palin effect.
The Post's Dana Milbank reported that media representatives in Clearwater were greeted with taunts, thunder sticks and profanity. One Palin supporter shouted an epithet at an African-American soundman and said, "Sit down, boy."
McCain may want to call off his pit bull before this war escalates.
As many diarists have noted, we are entering a very troubling phase of this election. When racial epithets, death threats and charges of treason are flung daily at McCain/Palin rallies -- and neither candidate lifts a finger to stop it -- we have entered a very frightening and disappointing moment in our nation's history.
It is an escalation that can only be stopped by those on the right who are courageous enough to take a stand and demand that the hatred stop.
Kathleen Parker has shown she is such a person.
She may not become a progressive any time soon, but today she demonstrated, thankfully, that there are still those with honor on the other side of the aisle.
She deserves our thanks.