On the "Dr. Phil" show last week I sat next to a powerful politician -- Mayor Gavin Newsom -- who ritually rejected violence but refused to decry these extraordinary threats to ordinary voters' livelihoods. I also sat next to Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign, when a young Mormon in the audience asked him, "Why are you singling out my faith when so many other people supported Prop 8?" Did Joe, an amiable guy, take a moment to call his troops to back off from religious bigotry, to refocus on the larger problem -- 7 million Californians disagree with his organization's gay marriage civil rights dogma?
No. I sat silent, dumbfounded, next to Joe when he pointed at the young man and cried, "We are going to go after your church every day for the next two years unless and until Prop 8 is overturned."
My mouth dropped. This was Joe's response just a few days after white powder was sent to LDS temples in Utah and California.
But no one else seemed to notice.
If any political movement had aired ads attacking Jews for taking over the government because Jewish citizens donated "too much" money to a cause they believed in --everyone right and left would recognize that something very wrong was happening.
But right now, judging from their unwillingless to speak out, leaders of the gay marriage movement (including powerful politicians like Mayor Newsom) apparently believe that the new politics of payback works for them.
Something new and very ugly has entered American politics.
Right now, the politics of hate may be centered on marriage, but if these tactics are permitted to work uncriticized, I promise you one thing: They won't end there.