If the state maintains order - which is its true function - then rhetoric doesn't matter and pluralism can flourish.
If order is maintained then the heated rhetoric of the right may even beneficial by allowing people to vent or to enjoy the illusion that someone - anyone - is listening to them and championing their cause.
It is only when order cannot be maintained and rhetoric becomes action that you have to worry.
That is the true historic lesson of the brownshirts. Their behavior was only possable because the German state could not maintain order.
When Hitler came to power he established a "new order" which as a demonstration of its control liquidated the leadership of the SA - mostly accomplished by the new "good puppies" of the party, the SS.
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has characterized Obama supporters as 'cult-like', and has complained that the media has not given Obama sufficient scrutiny.
Krugman, considered to be a neo-Keynesian economist, taught at the London School of Economics before joining the faculty of Princeton University, in 2000. He also served as a consultant for an advisory board for Enron in 1999 prior to joining the New York Times as a columnist in 2000.
Krugman is a member of The Group of Thirty (G30) which was founded in 1978 by the Rockefeller Foundation which also provided initial funding for the body. Its first chairman was Johannes Witteveen, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Its current chairman of trustees is Paul Volcker.
We have separation of church and state in the United States of America because the state - all states - exalt themselves above all other groupings of people.
When we ask ourselves, ‘what is the state?’ We quickly realize that we must first ask, ‘ what are people?’ Human beings are individual organisms. Long age, however, these individuals came to realize that they could accomplish a great deal more as members of groups than as individuals.
The individuals formed families, clans, tribes, and eventually states. At first city-states, then groups of city- states which became nation-states. The state is itself, however, a group of people.
So, the answer to our question - ‘What is the state’ - is that the state is an organization - a group of individuals. These individuals may originally be a tribe, a clan, or a family which has become capable of influencing - exerting power over - the other groups within that particular state.
Organizations exercise power through control. To effectively exercise control the state has to be the focus of the individual’s loyalty. The state must, therefore, eliminate the other organizations within the state which are capable of competing with it for the loyalty of the individual.
We can now understand that the chief proponents of the rise of a state are, themselves, a group and that they are the dominant group within the state. It doesn’t matter whether this dominant group is an aristocracy, or a group of businessmen. Whatever it’s composition the group’s continued dominance is dependent upon control. The state must, therefore, eliminate the tribal leader, the clan chief, and the family patriarch through assimilation, or execution.
In the context of a struggle for dominance the priesthood is as great a rival of the state for the loyalty of the individual as are the tribe, the clan, and the family. Like the tribal leader, the clan chief, and the family patriarch the chief of high priest can be assimilated or executed but not the entire priesthood.
Assimilation of the high priesthood is not practical because the head of the state must also become the state religion’s high priest or another individual must be invested with that power. State religions run the risk of undermining the loyalty of those who practice a different faith. Power sharing with a high priest might result in a rivalry for control of the state.
The question then becomes how best to dominate the priesthood without turning them into rivals or martyrs. When the question is posed in this fashion the obvious solution is the "separation" of church and state. Being separate from the state the priesthood can be dominated by the state through the "rule of law" as easily as any other group of individuals within the state.
Separation of church and state is, therefore, a method of control and dominance by the state. That is why the state extends tax free status to those religious organizations which do not meddle in "politics." That is, those religious organizations who do not concern themselves with whether the state is actually managed in a fair and equitable manner.
What most of you aren't understanding is the depth of the anger on the right and left of the electorate in this country.
That is what John McCain is hearing at his rallies and you are seeing on CNN. Democrats don't hear it at their rallies because the left long ago discarded the democratic party.
This anger is not something that will somehow evaporate and just go away. The right is just now discovering how much they have been misled and betrayed.
Taking care of the needs of the citizens is not PANDERING - it is what ruling classes do to stay in power.
You know, I know, and they know that is not true.
Thanks for you help.
The United States of America should declare a "Year of Jubilee" - the "forgiveness of all debts." The requirement for a Year of Jubilee is clearly established in chapter 25, verse 10 of the of the Old Testament/Torah Book of Leviticus. Verses 28, 40, 50, 54, of the 25th chapter and verse 24 of the 27th chapter clearly require the forgiveness of all debts by all believers every 50 years.
This is a requirement, it is not an option. This is why in Chapter 6, verse 12, of the New Testament Book of Matthew (The Lord’s Prayer) Jesus prayed, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."