So sad, and all the more tragic for it being so totally unnecessary.

Exactly. Since my father's parents emigrated here in the 1920s, I've looked through Newspaper archives to see how Italians were viewed back then, and it's clear that they were subjected to the same sort of bigotry. In fact, Italians were considered so "other" that they were referred to as a "race".

They seem to be trying to settle on the amount of performative cruelty necessary to fend off Reform. A fruitless effort that does nothing but reveal their lack of moral conviction.

I'm continually amazed at the blowback that's been unleashed by simply according people who don't happen to be white, male, straight and/or Christian their full humanity. This officially-sanctioned celebratory cruelty brings to mind the post-Reconstruction era.

If you've spent your entire professional life successfully selling people preposterous bullshit, you conclude - not unreasonably - that EVERYTHING is about messaging.