ON THE BRINKWell, now we are starting to see the consequences of the politics of hate and fear the Republicans have brought upon us in the Atwater/DeLay/Rove era. The use of enemies, real or imagined, to unify and motivate partisan coalitions is hardly new, or limited to only one party. But in the post-9/11 period, there is an underlying viciousness to political discourse that I haven’t seen in