"our profoundly heterogeneous society...also sparks a perpetual identity crisis, perpetual unease."

[pampango]

To overcome it, to make ourselves feel better, we "need" enemies, the sense of rootedness and cohesion that crises, and even wars, can bring. (This isn't only an American trait; all nations use their enemies, real and imagined, as rallying points.) Historically, the United States, in part because it's bordered by two vast oceans, has had only a few legitimate exterior enemies. But we freely create them from within.

Leaving aside Angle's grasp of facts, her comment is just the latest foray into the dark world of American xenophobia. Mexican immigrants have been demonized along with Muslims in 2010, not to mention the first black president (he's Kenyan, he's Muslim, he's not one of "us").

In the past, our politics and rhetoric demonized Catholics and the Irish, the "yellow" hordes, "dirty" Italians and "stupid" Poles. Why does such a successful nation of immigrants engage periodically in mass spasms of intolerance?

One school of thought has it that ... our ambivalence toward the "other" is tied to economic cycles and flares up in times of great social uncertainty. By that explanation, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant fervor are right on time, a perfect match for the Great Recession.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/18/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez-xenophobia-20101018