The Republicans will probably be shattered after tomorrow, and John McCain (if he loses) and others in his mold will be the ones losing power in the party, while the fringe elements will be there holding the axe. The base was never happy with McCain, and if he loses big, which is what it looks like right now, then the GOP will move even more to the right, which is dangerous considering some of the awful things coming from the Republican Party already.
Take for example the latest point pushed by Governor Palin at a rally -http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/03/happening-now-palin-in-jefferson-city-missouri/ Once again, Republicans are trying to link Democrats to being soft on something, whether it's crime, communism, or now, terrorism. She even says "Do they think the terrorists have become the good guys?" This continued pressure to create a false link between Democrats, particularly Obama, and terrorists has become utterly sickening to me. It is low, and even has some slight racial tinge to it- once again trying to portray Obama as "foreign" and linked to terrorists. What started as targeting his casual associations with William Ayers then moved on to a professor from Columbia, and has now just become sympathies with generic terrorists. This brings up racial fears, as when a woman at a McCain rally in Minnesota got up and said over the mic that "He's an arab and a muslim" While really, Obama's religion or ethnic background should not even be part of the picture, some in the GOP still attempt to subtly make it an issue, playing on people's lowest fears of "others". It is an attempt, though weak, to make Obama not an American, and definetly tries to paint him as not from "real America", Palin's label for small towns as opposed to big cities.
It's bad when fear-mongering occurs through viral emails and on websites, but it is truly despicable when it goes on during political rallies and directly from the candidates' mouths. While people have the right to say what they want under the 1st Amendment, people also have the right to call out when that speech is intolerant, as Krugman does so effectively in his piece. We all have that right, and thus a responsibility to refute and expose words of prejudice and hate.
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