Cold Civil War

It amuses me when I hear yet another talking head refer to "the American People." As if the concept had survived the transition to the 21st century. Hello, can anyone see a fence cutting across the nation, the two sides hating each other more than ever?

All right, I exaggerate. September the 11th has united us for a while, and it is safe to say the "American People" don't want anything like that to happen on the soil again, but the exaggeration is much closer to the truth now than it has been during the Reagan years, or even Clinton years.

What prompted me to write all this? This tweet here. After the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, he was delighted to point out that Rush Limbaugh had promised to leave the country if the law survived. The author of the tweet followed up with three words: "Start packing, prick."

If you're getting your rotten tomatoes out, save some for me: I loved it and I took great pleasure in retweeting it. Rush himself, I'm sure, must have felt great when he'd insulted a woman from the opposing camp on the radio.

The aggressive rhetoric aimed at de-humanizing the opposition clearly shows that the civil war is on. A cold one, thank goodness.