Hullabaloo

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

 
On The Road With Orly

by digby

Esquire has a great story about the conservo-crazy cult which he colorfully describes as "pus exploding from a wound." When you read the article, you'll see just how apt this description is. Here's just a little excerpt:

Almost immediately following the election, a rash of extreme but nonetheless important statements about Obama and his agenda started appearing in the media. Here's a small but representative sample, lest we allow the latest Dobbsian rhetoric (or Chuck Norris) to obfuscate the chorus:

1. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said the bailout was the start of America's downfall. "To abandon a market-oriented society and transfer it to a Soviet-style, government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated program, that is the thing that will put the stake in the heart of freedom in this country."

2. Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas said that Obama intended "to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not kill it."

3. Congressman Ron Paul of Texas said that "socialism" was too mild a word for what Obama was doing because taking over corporations "adds a fascistic aspect to socialism."

4. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said she wanted her constituents "armed and dangerous" because Obama was planning "re-education camps for young people." She also said that "Thomas Jefferson told us having a revolution every now and then is a good thing."

5. Ambassador Alan Keyes called Obama a communist who is trying to establish "an American KGB."

6. Rush Limbaugh Show guest host Mark Davis told a joke about a soldier who has only two bullets in his gun when he meets Osama Bin Laden, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi — and uses both bullets on Pelosi before strangling the other two.

7. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama put his considerable weight behind the "birther" movement: "His father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate."

8. Legislators in thirty states filed Tenth Amendment "sovereignty" laws as a symbolic gesture of defiance to Washington.

9. Tens of thousands of YouTubers watched a video called "Revolution Now," in which a masked man claiming to be a soldier and an "anonymous American patriot" warned of growing resistance within the military. "There's a revolution brewing," he said. "We have allowed the tyrants to take over this country."

10. Seven percent of the country thought, at a time when the Republicans were almost unanimously resistant to everything the Democrats proposed, that the GOP was being too cooperative. That's roughly 21 million seriously alienated people.

But nobody vibrated with the new sense of alarm more vividly than Fox's new talk-show host, Glenn Beck. "The year is 2014. All the banks have been nationalized," he began one show. "Unemployment is about between 12 percent and 20 percent. Dow is trading at 2,800. The real-estate market has collapsed. Government and unions control most of business, and America's credit rating has been downgraded."

In another, he sounded exactly like a militia member from the backwoods of Montana: "They'll take away guns, they'll take way our sovereignty, they'll take away our currency, our money. They're already starting to put all the global framework in with this bullcrap called global warming. This is an effort to globalize, to tie together everybody on the planet!"

Beck called for resistance and talked about storming Washington, selling T-shirts blazed with the pitchfork of an angry mob — and all of this led to startling success. Debuting last January in a weak 5 P.M. time slot, Beck shot to the No. 3 cable-news slot overnight, right behind Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity with 2.5 million viewers.

And all of this was nothing compared to the alarmed citizens raging away on his Web site:

* Obamacare meant that "bureaucrats are going to decide who lives and dies," one said.

* The new pro-union card check law was "possibly the greatest threat against American free enterprise ever," said another.

* People were "better off trusting their mattresses" than the greedy bankers, said another.

* There were "35 terrorist training camps spread across the U.S.A." that were run by Sheikh Gilani from Pakistan, said another.

* Homeland Security "deliberately ignores the border and the redistribution of wealth is NOT constitutional," said another.

* Others solicited signatures for a new "martial law early alert" system and suggested that people download a video that "completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people."

* "GET YOURSELVES HUNKERED DOWN WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS," one woman advised. "GET PASSPORTS AND START LOOKING NOW FOR INEXPENSIVES SAFE PLACES TO GO — THE U.S.A. IS OVER AS WE HAVE KNOWN IT."

This is beyond free floating anxiety; it's a form of mass hysteria and it wasn't precipitated by ideological differences with Obama. It's Vince Foster Banarama 2.0. And it's grown even though they had a run of eight long years of blood and Jesus. Maybe it's because there aren't any normal Republicans anymore so their feedback loop is completely closed --- or maybe it's the addition of FOX News and Free Republic to their old toxic stew combined with the fact that they were so soundly humiliated by Republican failure that has given them this new energy. But basically, it's the same people spouting the same crap: pissed off white, middle aged conservatives who think they own this country and can't stand it that they have to share it with anyone else.

Be sure to read to the end for the report on the "road trip" with Orly Taitz. Wow.


Update: And then there's this.
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digby 8/12/2009 08:30:00 AM |