I love it when conservatives talk about reality. They're soooooooo tough minded. Real he-men -- of the solitary, nasty, brutish and short variety. I left "poor" out of Hobbes' quote because most conservatives aren't poor. Yes, there are plenty of poor, conservative whites in the South who cling to the Republican Party as the great white hope that will restore racial supremacy as the rule of the day. But for the most part, conservatives are successful men who like to think of themselves as self-made men, rugged individualists who don't hesitate to call a spade a spade and are realists enough to sometimes it's necessary to bury all fellow-feeling when there's profit involved.
As for Barak Obama, I agree with everything he said. In our horror over the Virginia Tech killings, let's not lose sight of the quiet violence that corrodes the fabric of our society day in and day out. The cheap "humor" of Imus, a comment that even if he is not himself a racist, certainly winks dismissively at the pervasive racism of our country and personally caused pain to innocent people he very publically denigrated. The quiet violence of corporate greed that spits on the communities of people who have given their time and energy to build businesses only to be told: "So long, suckers." The quiet violence of city governments that tax citizens to build football stadiums for millionaire teams and leaves the mentally ill to shift for themselves on the streets, that ignores the plight of the homeless. The quiet violence of a society that sees the other as usable, as object, as enemy. That's the reality that Obama was talking about. The reality that conservatives can't seem to be able to get through their thick heads is that everything is inextricably interconnected. Or to put it into my favorite quips: "Show me a man who changed his own diaper and I'll show you a self-made man." (Michael Eric Dyson) "It takes a village to raise a child." (Hilary Clinton) "I am you and you are me and we are all together." (Beatles) : ) -- now THAT'S reality. Guns deny reality, they are the disastrous fantasy of disastrous rugged individualism.