Billmon, talking about the right-wing's inability to not go completely over the top when talking about the "dire threats" we face:

They're waxing hysterical about the immigrant "threat" for the same reason they've been waxing hysterical about the "Islamofascists" for the past five years: because it legitimizes their paranoid, authoritarian world view -- which in turn justifies the kind of paranoid, authoritarian state they want to see established in this country.

The decentralization of power is going to be a vital component to the 21st Century Left's platform. It's critical that we position ourselves in opposition to centralized bureaucratic control, be it from the Federal Government or Wal*Mart.