Pat Buchanan is scared out of his mind

Last night gave us one of the most shocking displays of outright racism we've seen on television in a long time -- and that's in a week that gave us more than we've ever wanted to see of Jeff Sessions and Tom Coburn and "got some 'splainin' to do" said to a Latina Supreme Court nominee.

All claims that racism is a thing of the past now that we have a black president have been debunked this week, and Pat Buchanan gave the racist travesty that was the Republicans at the Sotomayor hearings a resounding closing bell on Rachel Maddow's show last night:

If you needed further proof that the white male power structure, the C Street "Family" and the white Southern politicians are recognizing that the world they know, the world they run, the world that has allowed them to bestride the nation like a colossus, is coming to an end. Black presidents and Smartass Latinas from Godless Heathen Liberal Communist Homosexual Jewy Jew New York and Marauding Hordes form Latin America and lesbian news anchors are encroaching on the territory that the C Street guys still insist was given to them by God. And they are NOT going to go without a fight.

Perhaps this is what the gun culture is really about. Perhaps it's all about a coming race war as men like Pat Buchanan, crazed with the rage and irrational fear we saw from him last night, fight a battle that they ultimately cannot win but are willing to fight anyway.

We ignore and ridicule these men at our peril.