Tell wackos they don't speak for you

Maybe we should just agree that there are wacko wingnuts on both sides of the spectrum, and with the media's fascination with controversy, it looks as if the nation is exploding all the time.

Is there any other way to look at it?

We're always going to be a country of haves and have nots, and there will always be different reasons that folks don't make it. Some are stupid, some are lazy, some are genuinely unlucky and some are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But think about this:

We have raised a generation of Americans who are coming of age never having known a president who wasn't under constant attack. Whether it was Bill ClintonBill Clinton from 1993-2001, George W. BushGeorge W. Bush from 2001-2009 or Barack ObamaBarack Obama now, the opposition has been almost relentless in trumpeting the illegitimacy of the chief executive.

I'm old enough to know that wasn't true before 1993. Plenty of folks didn't like Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan, but they didn't question his right to be president. Ditto with George H.W. BushGeorge H.W. Bush. On key programs, including tax cuts, tax increases and Supreme Court nominations, both of them had support across the aisle.

People on both sides understood that they were men of good will and wanted what was best for America.

Certainly none of them had to deal with anything like the "Clinton Chronicles," which accused the president of being a drug dealer and a murderer, or the "911 Truthers," who accused Dubya Bush of being in on the planning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

And let's not even get started on the birthers.

I get upset with those attacking Obama for large deficits and big spending when they never once complained about Dubya Bush doing the same. If they'd say they were wrong not to complain then, I might be willing to listen.

What really bothers me is the way the last three presidents have been attacked as if they were somehow anti-American. Remember the furor about Clinton's college trip to the Soviet Union? Or Dubya Bush's close ties to the Saudis?

Now I know people who are actually saying Obama is a covert Taliban agent.

Go figure.

Remember Sarah PalinSarah Palin's attacks during the campaign when she talked about Democrats as if they weren't "real Americans?" I'm sure if you listen to Rush LimbaughRush Limbaugh, you've heard him say more than once that there are two kinds of people in this country -- liberals and Americans.

I sure hate quoting Rodney KingRodney King, because I really don't believe we can all "just get along." But our national debate has gone through stages that make it worse every time.

We started with VoltaireVoltaire's "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

We went from there to "You're wrong."

Then to "You're stupid."

We've reached "You're un-American" and "You're evil."

There's only one more step past that, and it involves concentration camps and death chambers.

I have said before that I think 80 percent of us look at these people and laugh, or at least shake our heads.

Maybe it's time to say one more thing to them -- on both sides.

"You do not speak for me."

That would be a big step in the right direction.