The "Winter of Our Discontent"

The anger out there seems to find new targets almost daily. First it was health reform, then deficit spending, then illegal immigration, then the response to the oil spill, then the Obama family’s vacation plans, and now the mosque near ground zero. In his latest pander to the radical right, Newt Gingrich, a political newt if ever there was one (a lizard-like salamander, that is), accused president Obama of “pandering to radical Islam.”

Not only are Tea Party Republicans angry at everything (especially the Democrats), so is the left. They’re angry at Obama for “selling out” on the public health insurance option, climate change legislation, immigration reform, Afghanistan, and other things. Of course, this attitude is self-defeating. If you don’t like the current political reality, look out for the speeding train that’s coming at you from the right.

In sum, we seem to have become an angry and deeply divided country. No good can come from this. If there is to be a future worth waiting for, we are going to need to rediscover the concept of fairness and try to act like a civilized country.