Oh, man, I agree with you. I am so scared by this new movement that I'm burying my head in the sand...but I just have a bad, shivery ominous feeling. I guess I keep thinking that people will come to their senses and laugh the Tea Party away, and that just hasn't happened. The blatant racism against Muslims and fear-mongering is worse now than it was right after 9/11. I don't know what to make of that.

And I have lived in one of those Third World countries. I know how bad it can get (and where I was was NOT the worst of the worst by any means, being way more developed than a lot of third world countries).