The violent reactions blacks, Jews and Mormons endured tends to obscure the significantly different motivations behind the bigotry, but blacks clearly understand it, as evidenced by their asking whites (Jews) to leave the civil rights movement.

Which brings us to Barry. Is Obama's candidacy a sign that racism is a dead letter in American society?

I really hope so, but I'm not so sure. Obama is not Colin Powell. He is not objectively a qualified competitor for the office and I am not saying anything new here. If you're saying that neither is Hillary, you're right. They are both affirmative action candidates, but Hillary is appealing to liberal women's sense of entitlement to power, while Obama's is more complex.

For blacks, Obama symbolizes the end of racism. Yet Obama's obvious lack of qualifications for the office suggests something else for Whites--an obviation of their guilt. If you vote for Obama, or if you gave money to Obama, its like this generation's version of marching with Dr. Martin Luther King--a life-time get-out-jail-free card on the charge of racism. Anytime anyone calls you a racist, you simply say, preferably with your voice dripping with indignation, "I contributed to Obama's campaign, I voted for the man!"

Having said that, I am only really describing a part of the Obama dynamic. No doubt some people are genuinely impressed with the man, and are in fact supporting him in color-blind fashion, but ask yourself the question: If Obama was a white guy with no executive experience, a history of drug use, a former state legislator and with less than one term as a U.S. senator and running for president, what kind of chance would he have?

Right.

The Mormon dynamic for Romney is of course a negative one. Evangelicals are highly threatened by Mormonism. Southern Baptist studies suggested that 40% of U.S. converts to Mormonism were former Southern Baptists. This has created a kind of hysteria among Evangelicals generally. Yet it is a diffuse, impersonal and theoretical hatred. Romney made some progress among Evangelicals as they saw him as a man, and not merely a Mormon, but its an open question as to what degree Evangelicals can overcome the bigotry fostered by their leadership over generations to consider the consequences to the Republican party and the country generally.

The differences between the two kinds of bigotry are profound, but they inspire the same fatal weakness in ourselves and our community. Before being driven from Illinois, as they'd been driven from Missouri, the city they had built--Nauvoo, was the largest in the state. Larger even than Chicago. We can never know what the economic, civic and political future of such a city might have been, but considering what the Mormons have managed to accomplish in the high desert plateau, founding Salt Lake City and countless others from southern Alberta to the Mexican border, the opportunities that were lost in hatred and violence were boundless. About a year ago, I was in southern Illinois, a sleepy, agricultural region of the state dotted with insignificant decaying little towns. Nauvoo has seen some growth in recent years, ironically as a museum for the history that occurred there.

The history of racism has left similar quiet graveyards of history throughout the south. The communities and states that couldn't let go of it, remain insignificant, forgettable places noted only for their backwardness and bitterness.

This election suggests that we haven't learned all that much, and are perfectly willing to relegate our future to the silence and insignificance of all fallen empires and backward peoples. Democrats are choosing their presidential candidates like trailer trash belles choose their men--for all the worst reasons and wildest delusions, but mostly out of self-loathing and profound stupidity.

Republicans dysfunction may be different in nature, but no less destructive. If Democrats are loser-picker trailer trash belles, then Republicans are the spoiled daughters of wealthy parents who run off with the town ne'er-do-well because they like the way the cigarette dangles from the side of his mouth.

Perhaps Republicans have so long been acclimated to power that they've become spoiled children. Evangelicals, long ignored and abused over decades of Democrat control of Congress, became kingmakers in the GOP, creating ever more strenuous litmus tests. The demands for Christian orthodoxy have extended to harmonizing the constitution with the Bible and disqualifying candidates who they deem to be heretics.

They aren't the only problem though. Republicans across the spectrum all ill-at-ease with the riff-raff they share the party with. Economic conservatives wish social conservatives would go away. Defense hawks have no use for either of them. Apparently its a Grand ol' party, except for all the other people in it.

The relentless self-interest and narcissism extends more visibly to the pundit class, which thanks to the blogosphere, increasingly includes run-of-the-mill conservatives. Mark Levin's so-called endorsement was an embarrassment--No one is as good a conservative as Levin, and certainly not Mitt Romney, whom you should vote for anyways in spite of the fact that he's no damn good.

Ann Coulter is also holding her nose, endorsing Romney in spite of his "wacky religion".

We are at the precipice, literally and figuratively. In three days, we will find out if the future of the GOP and perhaps the future of the country is Nauvoo or Chicago.