Watching the Alito hearings and their aftermath, I think I have figured out one big reason that the Democrats have been consigned to minority party status the past few years: they treat the public as if we're stupid and incapable of discerning what is real and what is not. Ted Kennedy endeavored mightily to portray Alito as a racist, sexist bigot, when he clearly wasn't. The great unwashed, me included, could see that Teddy was merely trying to score points and smearing a decent man in the process. The public can detect and condemn racism when we see it: I think the country has been truly shocked and appalled by such major events as Hurricane Katrina, when we were reminded yet again that there were hundreds of thousands of people, mostly black and mostly poor, who simply didn't have what most of us take for granted....like a dry house. I believe the country was also shocked several years ago when years of police abuse and brutality finally erupted into race-based violence in Cincinnati, which came off looking like one of the most racist cities in America, an appearance I still don't think it has shed. So people can detect racism and sexism, and condemn it when it exists. But Teddy et al. act as if the Democrats are the only barrier between evil Republicans and reinstitution of Jim Crow laws or worse. No one believes it, and more importantly, the playing of the racism or sexism card just seems like manipulation of the most cynical sort. So when Teddy thunders, he looks more pathetic than anything else. It must be frustrating for him and his kind to know that no one buys what he's selling anymore. The irony is that the reason he's out in the cold is that the movement of which he is one of the last leaders succeeded in truly changing our culture for the better. He should take credit for that, and go home.