Perhaps the saddest aspect of the entire Park51 episode is that the right’s fear campaign actually seems to be good politics. As last week’s CNN poll showed, fully 68 percent of Americans say they oppose the project — including 70 percent of independents and 54 percent of Democrats. I know, this doesn’t mean that all of these people agree with or are entirely comfortable with the uglier rhetoric coming from the right, but the numbers are a clear and stark reminder of how emotional this topic is to most Americans: Faced with headlines about a mosque being built near ground zero, their response is not to celebrate their country’s commitment to religious freedom and pluralism or to be soothed by mitigating context (like the fact that there are already mosques — and strip clubs! — nearby) — it is to shake their heads and say, “No!” This is an emotional topic for them, not a rational one.

See the full article from “Salon”