The Right’s Base Behavior

Submitted by David Neiwert on October 1, 2007 - 1:04pm.

Editor's note: I'm exceedingly pleased and proud to introduce our next guest poster, who'll be checking in with us every Monday for the rest of the year: David Neiwert, who at his blog Orcinus and his two books, In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest and Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, A Trial, and Hate Crime in America, has established himself as our premier chronicler not merely of the violent far-right, but the even more crucial subject of how the violent far-right's ideology migrates into the mainstream. -- Rick Perlstein

So Republican candidates were busy finding better things to do this week than appear at a forum where they could debate minority issues. Rudy's excuse was the best: he had to go off and hobnob with Bo Derek.

Digby's right, as usual: It's not just that the no-show reveals the undercurrent of racism that runs through the conservative movement like an ancient underground sewer -- the snub also played an important role in sending a signal to the conservative base.