Yes, it’s a little scary how far the party is willing to go these days to pander to the hateful and ignorant. At the convention, we saw one group of delegates drown out a speech from a Puerto Rican politician by chanting “USA,” and another group throw peanuts at an African American camerawoman and call her an animal. Add to that all the creative ways the party is trying to keep poor people from voting, plus the tendency of opinion-shapers like Sarah Palin to label only certain groups as “real Americans,” and I think it’s fair to conclude that the GOP is not merely trying to shrink the government — they’re trying to shrink the country until it’s as small and narrow as their own minds.