Last night, a 16 year old Caucasian girl tweeted, “Someone needs to assassinate Obama… like ASAP #DieYouPieceOfShit”.

For this, according to the Daily Kos, she gained a lot of new followers and 300 retweets before her account was closed today. She also got her fair share of hate directed back at her.

Alyssa’s tweet is but a microcosm of what’s wrong with the modern day conservative movement. It’s indicative of what President Clinton said in his DNC speech, “I may often disagree with Republicans, but I never hated them, unlike the hatred displayed by extreme right wing activists towards President Obama.” The relentless hate directed at this President has been out of control from the beginning, led by Sarah Palin during the 2008 election and now being carried out by birther adjacent Mitt Romney, whose constant lies about Obama are meant to drive exactly the kind of racial animus displayed in Alyssa’s tweet.

After all, what reason could a 16 year old have for wanting a man she doesn’t know and whose policies she surely doesn’t know anything about to die? Yes, I can say with some confidence that she knows nothing of his policies, because I have yet to talk to any conservative – not one – who can accurately portray Obama’s policy stances. Even the most allegedly intellectually astute pundits on the Right are tainted with Foxian distortions and conspiracy theories of his intentions – intentions not reflected in his actual policies. In other words, they are running on fear, and fear is being driven to stir hate, and hate is being used to get out the vote for Republicans who can’t discuss their policies with even a modicum of honesty this go around.