Recycled?

Cries of "he's a socialist, he's a socialist" rang out in the crowd today at a John McCain rally. My father once said that everything is cyclical. Even my father couldn't have predicted the fear-trotting, and sophistry, that is the radical right.

Somebody coached Sarah Palin to think that by invoking red fright the unprecedented number of red states leaning towards Obama would come to their senses.

Fear is McCain/Palin's lifeline. They are invoking the days when government routinely stuck its head not only into our bedrooms, but into our political activities.

And, if Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann gets her way, the House Un-American Activities Committee will be born again, along with Stalinist purges.

Whatever remains of the moderate wing of the Republican party is now a fringe group, eclipsed by Mrs. Rapture Dude. That was Colin Powell's message on "Meet the Press." Yes, yes, he endorses Barack Obama, but, importantly, Powell is disgusted to see that thanks to the neo-conservatives of his party moderates have gone the way of the middle class.

By throwing his hat, along with his running mate's $150,000 pair of boxing gloves, into the ring, McCain's campaign proves one thing, and one thing only: even ignorance can be recycled.