Benj:

I think there was a major shift in tenor at the Belmont Club between the morning of September 27 and September 29.

Richard Fernandez made the mistake of creating an open thread asking who won the Obama-McCain debate. It was a mistake because it triggered a deluge of Obama supporters who flooded this forum with some particularly divisive remarks. If the enthusiasm shown by Obama supporters on that debate thread is any indication of what is happening throughout our nation, the very enthusiasm of this year’s political campaign is doing long-term damage to our social fabric.

One Obama supporter (Sickofit) wrote:

I am disgusted by the way this country is going and it will never change sadly until all the christians, support our troops and other foreign war fanatics, and tax cut for the rich people are DEAD.

Another Obama supporter named K.L. Deas-Reay had this to say:

DOWN WITH ALL THE IGNORANT WHITE CARNIVAL TRASH..

(K.L. Deas-Reay resides in Rock Hill, South Carolina and also referred to Hillary Clinton’s campaign as “Clinton klux Clan” at the Boston Globe earlier this year.)

As regrettable as many polarizing statements made by some posters at the Belmont Club may be, let’s not whitewash the nastiness of statements made here by Obama supporters. Perhaps they took Senator Obama’s call for them to “get into their faces” a bit too far. The Belmont Club feels different after September 29, quite different. It feels as though there’s more of a siege mentality on this site that hadn’t been here before, and much of the blame goes to the rage of certain Obama supporters.

I’ve got news for you. There are bigots who oppose Barack Obama. Here’s some more news. There are bigots who support Barack Obama. I tend the bigots on each side tend to cancel each other out. Unfortunately, there appears to be a recent fashion emerging in the last year to use the word “bigot” with a meaning that doesn’t correspond to any known meaning in the dictionary, namely using the word “bigot” to refer to any and all people who oppose the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. Let’s hope the word “bigot” doesn’t become a code word for a victim of a future witch hunt analogous to the word “Communist” in the era of Joseph McCarthy.

I think the open thread of September 27 put people at the Belmont Club on notice. Add to that the very symbolism of the Obama logo with a rising sun that looks curiously like an eye looking right back at us, and the effect has not been to win hearts and minds.