One of my Republican friends assured me this past week that he had it on good authority from friends who participated personally in the Beck's Bad Boys March on the Mall, that race played little or no role in that storied teabaggers tempest. He also assured me that the was at least 65% certain that the President was actually a citizen. I feel better already. What about "The Zoo has an African Lion; The White House has a "Lyin' African" poster? Statistically insignificant. The Obama as Hitler posters? Not typical. The Barack the Joker in white-face placards? Not "necessarily" racist. "Obama is a racist . . . and hates white people?" Beck didn't really mean it. Death Panels and Obama is a Nazi? Go fish. The problem is not that ALL opponents of Obama, or his policies, or his party are racist or irrational . . . but that MOST racists and similar true believers are opponents of Obama. Worse, they are highly visible and highly vocal. Worse still, they are courted, funded, given voice, and empowered by the likes of Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, and all those in the GOP who either kowtow in their presence. Silence, dear conservative friends, is consent. And it threatens us all.