Image via WikipediaIn the early days of the American republic, the fate of this new experiment in republican government stood on a precipice. How would the new country survive if it couldn’t pay off its foreign debts and get its economy jump started?

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton had a plan. James Madison opposed it, and the two sides debated fiercely in the halls of government and out. It was only after the two sat down at a dinner hosted by Thomas Jefferson that a settlement was reached. The two men, although firmly entrenched on their sides of the debate, compromised — Hamilton got his fiscal plan and Madison earned for his native Virginia the site of the nation’s capital.

It’s hard to imagine the demagogues of today breaking bread and reaching a compromise in the interest of the country. Instead, while the Obama administration and leaders in Congress on both sides of the aisle toil over a stimulus plan to pull out of this recession, people like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin stir up the masses in the hopes of increasing their audience and selling books.

First, Rush said he hoped Obama would fail as a President, a statement that has provoked cries of treason from the new President’s most ardent followers. Before they start crucifying Rush, however, I wish they’d go back and revisit some of the things they said about George W. Bush. Freedom of speech, no matter how seemingly vile, is a freedom we all enjoy, regardless of our political leanings.

Fact: Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat, idiot.

See? I’m free to say anything I want! This is America!

Recently, Labor Secretary Robert Reich testified in front of Congress and followed up with a blog entry about his ideas for a stimulus plan. The plan, as Reich explains it, aims to stimulate the economy and create jobs in much the same way that the WPA did. It will fund infrastructure projects across the country — bridges, highways, buildings, etc.

Reich said that although many of the jobs will go to people who are already skilled construction workers, to limit the opportunity to people who already possess those skills misses the point, as those people are better able to compete in the free market for existing jobs than those who lack the skills and opportunities. That’s not to say, of course, that those people will be blocked from jobs created in the stimulus plan, Reich is simply saying the opportunities will be open to all.

Many of these jobs — not all — are ones that you can train people fairly easily to do. Perhaps he could have chosen his words a little better, but it’s hard to miss Reich’s point when he said

But if there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do the jobs involving new technologies, the stimulus will just increase the wages of the professionals who already have the right skills rather than generate many new jobs in these fields. And if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most — women, minorities, and the poor and long-term unemployed — will be shut out.

Of course Republitard Malkin twisted the Secretary’s words in such a way to whip up racial tensions (thus creating controversy and building her audience). She says that Reich’s plan will bypass white, male construction workers and unfairly give the jobs to poor, lazy, welfare-collecting darkies. Here is the original blog post from Robert Reich and Michelle Malkin’s column in reaction. Obviously, because now we have a black President, all jobs will go to minorities and white people suddenly face all kinds of discrimination. Get to the back of the bus, Buffy and Chip!

As a side-note, is anyone else as pissed as me that someone as hot as Michelle Malkin can be so fugly inside? I’ll bet when she accidentally cuts herself in the kitchen (while she’s mixing up a cheese and baby soul quiche), black stuff pours out like when Jay hit Jason Lee with the golf club in Dogma.

Anyway…now, I’m not saying Reich’s plan is the right one, in fact it has many detractors whom I respect. John McCain, for one, has come out against it in the Senate. It’s one thing to oppose something on its merits, it’s another to argue against it out of bitterness and use it as an platform to spread hate-filled, race-baiting agenda.

Malkin, Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and their ilk need to understand that what they say influences the way millions think. It is their responsibility to raise the level of discourse in this country. If they have conservative beliefs, so be it, but they should seek to make people in this country more informed, more intelligent and better able to make critical decisions on their own. Instead, they roll around in the gutters, spreading stink and filth and fear and hatred.

I can hear it now:

Watch out, white people! You, my friends, the salt of the Earth, the ones who made this country great. Heads up, because now it’s going to be snatched from you by people who think they are entitled to what you have worked so hard for, all because they were able to elect one of their own President!

First, they’ll take your jobs, then they’ll take your homes and cars and marry your daughters! This usurper from Nigeria is going to take your wealth and redistribute it to the welfare-collecting, drug dealing, project-living baby factories in the inner city. Isn’t this America? Isn’t this the land of the free? No! We’ve got a socialist living in the White House! I tell you, my friends, change is coming, and not for the better.

What’s next? Will Cinco de Mayo be the new Fourth of July? Will Kwanzaa replace Christmas? Will the liberal, gay-marrying, PC police out in San Francisco have us celebrating Sitting Bull’s victory at Little Big Horn instead of Thanksgiving?

Next we’ll have laws forcing us to conduct business in English, Spanish and Ebonics! Unless we oppose it, once the Obama racial reassignment plan is in place — this is a plan they are working on, they won’t tell you they are, but it’s in the works — we won’t even recognize this country.

We have an obligation in this country to oppose what we don’t think is just. These people, in some misguided way, think they’re doing just that. The battle lines have been drawn, just as they were in Hamilton and Madison’s day. It’s our job to advance our views, but when it seems the nation needs us, like they did over Thomas Jefferson’s dinner table, we must put our differences aside and do what’s right for all.