The said the same thing before the Civil War. The funny part is the Fugitive Slave Act they hammered through eleven years before ( a stronger version of earlier fugitive slave laws) basically said *!!@@*&% state’s rights.

As for Reagan he may not have been able to reinstate Jim Crow but that didn’t stop him from unleashing a DoJ that tried its darnedest to wipe out pert near every civil rights gain made up to that time. You bet I remember the firm of Meese, Reynolds and Pendleton. Their open hostility toward the black community was breathtaking.

These immigrants simply can’t find jobs in Mexico do not qualify for work visas to the US because our immigration system does not work. They don’t want health benefits or welfare, just a few hundred bucks in their pockets, then they would go back home (can you blame them?).

It brings me to a question: how can we be proud of being Americans? I know of the national myths the US basis its identity on: “home of the free and the brave” or how we welcome the tired, hungry and poor; but lets be real, we don’t really like anyone who has brown skin do we? Our lack of honesty with our selves is appalling. I’m just some dumb Graduate Student from Montana and I can figure this out, so James E. Powell is asking the correct question, why do we let these bigots poison our political system? Why does the comedian Rush Limbaugh have such influence?

Mr. Deep Thought: Do yourself a favor and read posts all the way through before you make a fool of yourself in the comments. Thanks much.

What is sad and tragic is that the rest of us, most of the rest of us anyway, sat around and watched Nixon, then Reagan, then Gingrich, then both Bushes use race-coded and overtly racist appeals during elections without any of us standing up to it, without calling it what it is and shaming it out of American politics.

Instead, it’s made Rush Limbaugh and his imitators rich.