WATCH: Anderson Cooper Tears Apart Arizona State Senator on AC360

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35. It's not like that. It IS that.

This is exactly what it is!!!! This old white-haired dude is lost in some "Father Knows Best" fantasy world of the proverbial "Good Old Days." That's what you get from middle-aged and older white people who moan "I Want MY America Baaaaack" as that pathetic woman standing in the back of some town hall meeting in 2010 was whining. Remember that video clip? HER America, and this guy's America, is one where Mommy stayed home with her house dress and apron on, making babies in the bedroom and cookies and a nice pot roast in the kitchen. Daddy went to work and there were two-point-something kids in the house, a dog, and a station wagon. And Daddy was king of the castle and everybody else deferred and the "little woman" knew her place and wasn't out there burning her bra and competing with men for the good jobs and being otherwise uppity. And of course Daddy's paycheck was big enough to cover everything, but that's a whole other argument about how unions had more say and more respect…

And whatever few-and-far-between African Americans were in the picture - knew to get out of town by 6pm, after they'd served all day as housekeepers, custodians, and other assorted "help." Latinos were nowhere in evidence at any hour except back in the restaurant kitchen washing dishes, and the only Asians in town ran the local Chinese restaurant. I'm not kidding. My husband grew up in a very conservative lily-white bedroom community very much like that. John Birch Society was everywhere, and was considered respectable. When you were in high school, you started hanging with the Young Republicans. And he said that blacks literally were not allowed in town after 6pm. ASTOUNDING. That's in our lifetime, mind you. Blows my freakin' mind even to think about it. My husband said he heard enough from some of those folks that it made him almost literally sick to his stomach. He was eager to get away from there.

Those moldy-oldie attitudes still exist. They're dying out. Slowly. But they still exist. Religion is the last "safe haven" these folks have under which to seek cover to keep these attitudes and preferences alive. And unfortunately, it's a VERY powerful one - and it gains new recruits every day. It's why they cling to ayn rand so much, too. She made greed and selfishness acceptable, even respectable. She provided them another avenue of justification for these shitty, antisocial, backwards-leaning, and antiquated views. They'll cling to her to their last breath. Religion is something they can use for cover, as well - saying GOD justifies it. And you can't get much higher than that.