Think of this as Volume 12, Number 41 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.
The most important task we face, in moving from a Thesis of Conflict to a Thesis of Consensus, is defining and enforcing the limits of tolerance.
In a Thesis of Conflict there are no limits. Spiro Agnew began the development of the Nixon Thesis under the baton of William Safire with personal invective. He belittled critics as "nattering nabobs of negativism" and the insults have only escalated from there.
This achieved its ultimate expression during the George W. Bush Administration, where 9-11 ushered in a second era of McCarthyism, an echo of hate as profound in its way as the Second Rising of the Klan during the first years of the last century.
It's important to remember that the Second Rising succeeded for a generation. It legitimized violence against blacks. It transformed the past, turning the Civil War into the Birth of a Nation. It countenanced lynching of anyone who, like Leo Frank, seemed different or even tolerant. It created Jim Crow, leaving blacks little better than serfs not just in the South, but in the North as well.
The Birth of a Nation premiered 50 years after the Civil War ended. The Bush-inspired Second Era of McCarthyism debuted 50 years after the height of the first McCarthy era, the time of the blacklist.
It's no accident.

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