Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

The more I think about the Faux News/AM talk radio issue, the more concerned I become. A considerable number of people in our country, a country that depends on informed citizens, get pure propaganda and they don't know it. They think the get received wisdom. The extent of this is really quite new, and there is no reason to believe that it will go away. How can our country function this way? Here's a comment from a friend about his father:

The other night my dad told me I should start watching Fox News for their “unbiased point of view”
Loud guffaw from me
He got right pissed…
Some people.

John Cole has some thoughts about this at http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28341

"They believe Obama is ruthlessly advancing a 'secret agenda' to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism."

Yes...after 8 years of Bush barging his way into the White House and pushing his "if you're not with me, you're against me" bullshit, these folks are left wondering how in the world things went so terribly wrong. Why didn't fascism work? "A pathetic kind of persecution complex is so, so RIGHT.

I've always seen the Republican "fears" as being the very ideological force they are in fact pursuing. It is a mirror towards their own intentions.

When I think of "Secret Agendas," I think of extreme right wind Republicans. All the rhetoric they spew seem to be the very things they are doing.

I don't envy them, but I don't feel the least bit sorry for them either. They've worked hard to get in this position, they've earned it, and they totally deserve it.

Well, clearly anything that challenges their mythology-- since their vision of America never really existed, and the places where they're culturally dominant are generally considered undesirable except for their scenery (rural West) or cheap labor (South)-- must be a plot to destroy, well, their mythology. In that sense, I guess they're right, although defending myths is hardly an epic resistance except in their own minds.

In a movement based on cognitive dissonance, I'm still alternately bewildered & amused by the way a mostly-white, theoretically-Eurocentric base is so hostile to policies and ideas implemented by more-white-than-not Europeans. On specific policies, they much prefer those of the developing world (Chile's retirement plans! Nigeria's abortion laws!), somehow expecting America's military might and liberal urban centers to mitigate the well-documented negative consequences of same. I think their exceptionalism is more of a Frankenstein monster of raw power and hubris than anything else.

i have no idea how anyone could look at obama's ECONOMIC team [geithner, summers, etc] and see socialism right around the corner...i see the banks owning the govenment, not the other way 'round...

Of course, the truly scary part is that, given their minority status, the nutballs cannot use electoral politics, even if they were sufficiently inclined or disciplined to do so, to address their alleged grievances. So, what do they then turn to?

This is how doublespeak works. Take the greatest weaknesses of your side and project them onto the opposition. And do it with relentless ruthlessness.

That's the basic game plan. It works. Look how fired up the base is. During off-year elections that could be a game changer. Then use that momentum to build a broader coalition for the presidential election.

Now, maybe it won't work in the presidential election, but it could go a ways toward neutralizing Obama if there are major partisan shifts in Congress.

This strategy requires an ethically challenged attitude, but it has been shown to work.

Phrases like "Obama Derangement Syndrome" apply extremely well to this segment of the GOP base.

And here's another one: Projection.

Who really drove the country into debt? Moreover, who really drove the country into debt as a part of a deliberate strategy to further a political agenda? Who really shredded the Constitution? Who stole an election (maybe even two)? Who violated international law? Who turned this country into a rogue nation? Which "political" camp really cozies up to foreign dictators?

The GOP simply is not a political party any longer. The most charitable thing you can say about it is that it has become a pathology.

" Republicans believe there's an "underground movement" assembling to resist the coming dictatorship"

I've been hearing, ever since Obama was elected, that ammunition has suddenly dissappeared from the store shelves.

This was due to either (A) Obama had somehow banned the sales of bullets, or (B) patriotic Americans were stockpiling ammo for the coming revolution.

Imagine my surprise yesteday, during a visit to my local WalMart, where I noticed a large display case filled with every sort of ammunition, from .22 to 30-06, and shotgun shells of every gauge.

Go figure.

Have you seen this wingnut online computer game?

"2011 Obama's Coup Fails is an action packed, satire-filled war game that takes place in the not-so-distant future. Right after the November 2010 election, to be precise. It has been said that America would never be destroyed by a foreign power. It does seem our biggest enemies are not from outside our borders. Could the scenario described above ever really happen? If current events keep transpiring as they are, then 2011 Obama's Coup may in fact become a dark chapter in American History. Stay informed and visit the United States of Earth Blog daily for the real facts taking place from the currently free media. Reality is far more scary and ominous than fiction. "

"Mission: To defeat all enemies of the United States, both foreign and domestic. Includes:"

* C.O.R.N.Y. (Congress of Rejected and Neglected Youth) Shock Troops
* Obama's police force (Ameritroops)
* The Cong (Former congressional leaders)
* Nation of Malsi (Islamic fundamentalist troops)
* Black Tigers (black nationalist troops loyal to Obama)
* NHKS (National Honor Killing Society) Yet another Islamic army
* I.S.U.E. ( International Service Union Empire) Troops
* U.N. (United Nations) Peacekeepers

http://www.usofearth.com/2011-obamas-coup-fails.php

"2011: OBAMA'S COUP FAILS"

"It is the year 2011. The United States has become saturated with suspicion and unrest. Since early 2010, President Barack Obama, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, and Prime Minister Stephan Harper of Canada have been conducting private meetings with each other and various political heads of the U.N. None of the meetings are open to the media, let alone the public. "

"The secrecy of the President became an issue tacked onto the political platforms of candidates running for the Senate and Congress in the November 2010 elections. Americans, thoroughly disgusted with the socialistic programs that have been thrust upon them over the last few years, vote out seventeen of the nineteen Democrats in the Senate and 178 in Congress that were up for reelection. When asked for his opinion on this monumental power shift in favor of liberty-minded Republicans during the November elections, President Obama is quoted as saying the elections were "ultimately inconsequential;" he allowed the cryptic statement to stand alone and said nothing more on the subject until January's swearing-in ceremony."

"Private ownership of firearms has been outlawed, and Obama promises a new era of equality and peace. Unfortunately for Obama, Americans will not act like the sheep he has taken them for. Revolution begins. Over 20 million armed American citizens begin seizing local and federal government buildings and officials."

And when the MSM edits out genuinely funny lines from Obama's speeches, it only makes things worse.

Check this out:

http://bicsplace.blogspot.com/2009/10/at-least-he-still-has-sense-of-humor.html

We need another study to answer the question that has been perplexing me for decades: How can the Right rail so fervently and single-mindedly against secret agendas, how can they fear for the safety of our economy and our Democracy when Carter, Clinton, and Obama are in power, then turn around and sit quiescently without saying a word when Nixon, Reagan, and the various Bushes are in power, doing the very things the Right says it's so worried about?

It seems to me that either one or the other of the following must be true:
a) All these worries and fears are a phony front they put on because they simply don't like anyone in power but their own people, and they don't really care what their own people do with that power,

or
b) They are not intelligent, perceptive, or learned enough to recognize what is really going on around them, and -- while their fears are legitimate -- they are easily convinced by Conservative/Republican leaders that slavery is freedom and war is peace, that unfettered wire-tapping, enhancing the Unitary Presidency, and getting rid of habeus corpus (et al) do not undermine our democracy, and that raising the deficit and the debt is not dangerous to our economy, etc.

Can someone please enlighten me on any of this?

These are the gifts that Rush, Sean, and others have given to the rightwing: Facts do not matter and hatred for hatred's sake is acceptable if not preferable.

Those who are willfully ignorant don't need to be able to debate politics using reason or facts. All they need to do is define "liberal" as bad and "conservative" as good, and then act accordingly. Think of how the former has become an epithet spat out in disgust by the rightwing.

If they are rich, it's often because they feel that God has rewarded them. If they are poor, it's because liberals, blacks, Mexicans, etc., are keeping them that way.

Keep in mind, also, that Rush Limbaugh exists largely because the "mainstream media" have done a poor or non-existent job of calling him out on his hatred. He is a vicious hypocrite who spouts bigotry daily, and yet instead of the media slamming him against the wall, figuratively of course, for dragging our national discourse into the gutter, he often gets treated with kid gloves.

Robert, the answer is b).

"When they look at the totality of his agenda, they see a deliberate effort to drive our country so deep into debt, to make the majority of Americans so dependent on the government, and to strip away so many basic constitutional rights that we are too weak to fight back and have to accept whatever solution he proposes."

It's a variation on what Naomi Klein called the "shock doctrine." Except Klein painstakingly showed how right-wing forces have, again and again, engineered crises in order to impose Milton Friedman-esque economic policies enforced by brutal, antidemocratic regimes.

it's not just fringe republicans that see things differently....

from a national journal article:

Across a wide range of questions, blue and white-collar men expressed pessimism about the country's direction bordering on alienation. By 41-28 and 45-27 percent respectively, a plurality of both the non-college and college-educated white men said Obama's agenda had decreased, rather than enlarged, opportunity for people like them.

Substantial majorities of both the blue- and white-collar white men said they believe government creates more obstacles than opportunities for their advancement.

Blue-collar men already prefer congressional Republicans over Obama to craft answers to the economy; the white-collar men split about evenly.

the whole thing is worth a look:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20090729_3440.php

I have commented on this before -- usually in similar descriptions of how out of touch the far right seem to us -- but I would caution anyone to find too much value in such analysis. It was only six to eight years ago that I would have found myself in a similar position to those now decried as having Obama Derangement Syndrome -- albeit the more acceptable, leftie version. So much of what Bush, et al did seemed so catastrophically wrong in my eyes that it was sometimes easier to believe that screwing up was their plan. Remember, the Republicans often subscribe to the mantra of "drowning the government in a bathtub" -- all those bugs I saw could really have been features in their eyes.

Now, of course, I am happy to see sane, pragmatic people try to handle difficult questions with data, deliberation and a progressive outlook. But I can easily imagine being a far-right "thinker" who perceives all of this as steps calculated to screw up the country. After all, as some of the previous posters have commented, Bush did exactly that, and projection is a strong suit amongst the right wing. These crazies may really feel just out of control, out of the debate -- much the way I did, and, I imagine, the way many of us felt throughout most of the Bush era. This makes them merely human, not deranged. And very frightened about a future where they don't have much input -- which is probably just as well.

I think one good strategy whether in large settings or one on one is to get these right wingers to be very specific about what their complaints are. Here is an administration whose economic team comes from Goldman Sachs and its defense department is headed by George Bush's old defense secretary. It's an administration that has pissed off its own left wing base for moving too slow on getting us out of wars and letting gays serve in the miltiary without hiding in the closet. It refuses to go after the Bush administration for war crimes, as it could. It talks about closing GITMO and opposing torture and secret surveillance but seems to be moving slowly on those things as well. It did propose a $900 billion stimulus bill that the right wing media likes to spin as tax and spend liberalism instead of damage control liberalism for the failures of eight years of conservatism. And how can you have a government takeover of health care with a plan that probably won't even have a public option. These are people living entirely in a bubble, and are being kept there by a cynical and corrupt media that loves the ratings of the niche they have carved out. So they need to make their case with something better than labels like socialism and big government.

I've had this experience myself of watching right wing eyes go blank when you ask them about specifics, and you see it all the time on TV when tea party protesters are interviewed. Once they've spewed the standard issue abstraction and talking point that FOX repeats robotically about Obama and liberals taking the US down a path of radical socialism or destroying our democracy, they are literally lost. You can see the puzzled look in their eyes. They might talk about the deficit, but when you mention that Newt Gingrich criticizes Obama for CONTINUING the policies of Bush ("The Bush-Obama bailout plan") not opposing them, they kind of blink blindly. Because the facts are that the Obama record just does not bear any resemblance at all to the wild charges made against it.

I became extremely ill when I read the letters to the editor page and found these two gems this morning:

"Fox the only TV network that airs real news"
In the Oct. 6 O-D, Leonard Pitts Jr. so much as called the people who watch Fox News insane. Why?

I watch the news on all of the networks and the only one that provides mostly real news is Fox. Fox may have more right-leaning guests, but they always have the opinion of the left also. CBS, ABC and the worst offender, NBC, provide their opinions as news and then present 25 minutes of infotainment.

People who pay attention watch Fox and also consider what the other media are saying in order to make an informed decision about what’s going on in the world. We aren’t insane and we certainly aren’t swallowing what is being dished out in newspapers and mainstream television by those who are so besotted with the current administration they’d sell their own families down the river.

I believe if people are paying attention to who is watching what, they will find there are many more Fox news watchers and that number grows larger every day. As an added note, if it weren’t for Glenn Beck, would anyone have cared about what ACORN was doing?

JUDITH

and:

"It will take decades to break Obama’s spell"
Prior to the last presidential election, many individuals questioned Obama’s experience or lack thereof. It is becoming crystal clear that those individuals were right. Obama fooled America and since he’s been in office he provides daily evidence that he was not ready for the job.
The most recent example was running to Copenhagen to spill his pretty words and snatch the Olympic games. Obama never should have exposed himself or our country to such humiliation. Obama promised to close Gitmo within one year and it won’t happen. He promised to get troops out of Iraq within one year. It won’t happen.

He spent $787 billion of taxpayer dollars to prevent unemployment from rising above 8 percent. It is currently 9.8 percent and climbing. He promised to save or create jobs and we have lost millions. He has deflated the dollar with his massive spending. He promised to prohibit Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon as it moves closer each day to obtaining one.
North Korea is basically spitting in American faces. Obama promised health-care reform and it has evolved into a circus. Obama has control of all branches of government and he can’t organize his own liberal, socialist community. How can anyone support the destruction this administration is causing? Americans were warned that he was not ready for the job but millions were captured in his hope and change trance and it will take decades to break the Obama spell as his agenda breaks America’s back.

STAN

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Hunter Thompson said this back in the early 00's, and I think he hammered the nail on the head when describing the subjects of his rant:

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world -- a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. "Well, shit on that dumbness, George W. Bush does not speak for me or my son or my mother or my friends or the people I respect in this world. We didn't vote for these cheap, greedy little killers who speak for America today -- and we will not vote for them again in 2002. Or 2004. Or ever. "Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid rich kids like George Bush? "They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us -- they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. "And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them."

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, Benen. Or so I've heard.

This is may be largely genetic.

This world-view evolves from the history of the Scots-Irish, who were used for centuries in border warfare between Scotland and England, the border went right through the Scots-Irish region, and then when the kingdoms were united they were uprooted en masse and shipped out to Appalachia.

(Their transportation to Ulster having been sort of a botch.)

@Schtick. I read the same drivel in another local wingnut paper.

"Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is the biggest joke of the century! Why should he get a prize for trying to destroy a country? Wake up, America!

Jim Payne"

Biggest joke of the century? Seems there's about 90+ more years left to go until "of the century".

"President Obama has such a persuasive voice that he is talking this country into its grave.
The same way evangelist Jim Jones talked nearly 1,000 of his followers, many still young enough to have every reason to live, into committing suicide.

And, in case you forgot that one, a similar incident occurred in the Manson “family,” in which formerly innocent people were talked into committing murder.

Harold H. Bush"

Suicide? Do us all a favor Bush and have at it.

I may be a democrat, but I do have ammo and a gun for protection against loonies like these.

republicans continual projection of their own deviousness and vileness onto others is unbelievable. With no evidence whatsoever (because its all lies) they project onto Obama the real-life admitted scheme of their hero reagan (via his budget director David Stockman) to intentionally bankrupt the government so it couldn't spend money on social programs.

And for what purpose would Obama bankrupt the government? the lunacy of their thoughts is manifest: bankrupting the government in order that the government could be made socialist is completely contradictory since the government can't spend money on social programs if its bankrupt.

The cognitive dissonance inside the republican brain must be unbearable. Its no wonder they lash out insanely and violently. They are truly a class of people in desperate need of professional psychological help.

The questions that linger in my mind is what to do about it? More importantly, can anything be done? Or are they a lost cause? At what point do these people become dangerous? (Especially since they tend to be the part of the population that has very romantic notions about guns.) Does the GOP realize that if they push them too far that their party loyalty is very questionable?

You have a relatively large percentage of the population (30%) that seems incapable of looking at the world without a very narrowly defined "us v. them" lens. They don't realize that we all do actually live in the same world, don't seem particularly concerned about anyone other than themselves. They are easily stoked by angry, half-witted demagogues and are quick to believe the absolute worst about anyone that they see as a "them." Obama isn't just someone they disagree with-- he's the anti-Christ, a secret Marxist Muslim Nazi who wants to destroy America.

It would all be funny if it weren't so scary. This is the same paranoid camp that the militia groups and Timothy McVeighs come from. Unfortunately that kind of thinking is just become more mainstreamed by folks like Beck and Limbaugh.

I don't think we should dismiss these people entirely. There is a growing feeling across the political spectrum, around the world, that peoples' lives are not in their hands anymore - that governments, multi-national corporations, banks, insurance companies, financial markets, private armies, arms merchants, shadowy institutions and bureaucracies rule our lives and make the real decisions. We are at their mercy. That sense of powerlessness fuels anger and paranoia.

It's getting worse and people see it every day. Many of us on the left had the same fears during the Bush years. People on the right had the same fears during the Clinton years. We see it through different lenses, but IT'S THE SAME BASIC PROBLEM for all of us - we're all getting shafted by a bipartisan corporate-funded Elite.

Bingo! As in homerun...

What Ted Friar said at 4:15.

It must be awful to be a Republican and be afraid of everything.

Why would anyone vote for someone like that.

Mark Twain said,

'What people don't know, they suspect.'

The first part-Black part-Caucasian President has a secret agenda that the lily white conservatives are against it even though it is a secret and the lily white conservatives don't know what it consists of, or even that it exists, since it is secret.

But that's ok they're against it anyway just in case it does exist. And they are willing to destroy a Presidency, who was Democratically elected, just in case there is a secret agenda and just in case that secret agenda might be something that “they” disagree with. And since “they”disagree with the secret that they think might exist, its OK to destroy this country for the rest of us.

Destroy, say, a democratically elected President of the United States, as opposed to Duhbya who cheated his way into the WH twice.

And of course we are supposed to believe that a bunch of ignoramuses who believe that a secret cabal, that they don’t know exists, since it is secret, put a Black man in the WH -

isn’t racist.

I recall some years ago serving on a jury, and noticing that my fellow jurors generally made their judgments not on the facts of the case, but whether they were comfortable with the witnesses, attorneys, etc. The policy issues we're facing right now are complicated [Can going into debt really solve the recession? Can expanding health care really help lower its costs?]. Given that, people are going to be inclined to fall back on their assessments of the people crafting the policy. But therein lies a problem: For years the Republican Party has relied heavily on people whose political motivations have had the character of a crusade; they're out to save the country from Evil. Now, though, they're out of power, and the people in power are not only people they didn't vote in, they're people who they simply don't understand except through stereotypes. Obama, especially, is a guy who came out of nowhere, with a vaguely Islamic name, an urban black guy [ask a white Mississippian about Memphis; my white Mississippian friends can't believe I actually enjoy living in the heart of Nashville], one of them fancy-pants college professors [Don't get me going]--in short as alien a figure as they can imagine. Nobody *they* know voted for him--so why is he President?

Note that a similar problem came up at another point in US history, when a guy became President that virtually no one in one part of the country would even have considered voting for--a guy who also came out of nowhere, riding on the force of his rhetoric, but who they were convinced was, despite his attempts at outreach, secretly sympathetic to terrorists and eager to destroy their whole way of life. The guy's name was Lincoln--and the rest, as they say, is history.

The conservative right, which includes much of the modern-day GOP, is turning America into a hate-filled society like it was during the McCarthy era.

We've seen two recent undercover operations sponsored by conservatives -- the secret videotaping of Acorn employees by O'Keefe and Giles and the infiltration of the Council on Islamic Relations by Sperry, documented in his new book "Muslim Mafia." Once made public both efforts immediately triggered predictable outcries by GOP Congressmen along with calls for legislation targeting funding for Acorn and CAIR. It's as if these Congressmen had advance knowledge of these amateur undercover operations and coordinated their response.

Conservatives can't convince the majority of citizens in face-to-face debates. So they use openly carried weapons, threats of assassination, fear, deliberate disinformation, entrapment, infiltration, illegal videotapes, theft of property along with staged disruptions of public town hall meetings to force their uninformed, anti-democratic nativist zealotry down the throats of their neighbors. They have translated George Bush's broad attacks on civil and human rights to the community level, vastly lowering the bar for civility, intellectual endeavor and citizenship.

I am disgusted by this behavior, simply disgusted.

"a deliberate scheme to destroy American democracy"

In fact, even the most casual examination shows that Obama is going to extraordinary lengths to preserve American institutions.

The thing that makes me most angry about the conservative right is they are trying to nullify my vote for President. It appears that they can't accept the decision of the majority of the country. A very unAmerican position to take.
My conservative friends always had the "America, love it or leave it" position during the Bush administration but it's a different tune they're singing now. It is just wrong.

So now it's "paranoid" and "delusional" to say that Barack Obama has evil intent and is out to destroy the country?

Well, yeah. I guess.

could it be that the GOP irrationally thinks that Obama has co opted the Bush agenda?

Speed: "I don't think we should dismiss these people entirely."/i>

Really? And how exactly would you suggest that we relate to people who joust with Captain Hook in Tinkerbell's Neverneverland and are forever one french fry short of a happy meal? They are most certainly not my equal on any level, nor are they the equal of anyone else who lives in a reality-based world.

I'm simply disgusted by the GOP and its bullshit, its bigotry, its hatred and its intolerance. At this point in time, I can only offer Republicans my personal assurance that while I will never throw the first blow to begin a fight, I will always throw the last one which ends it.

>"... nihilists who stand "a world apart from the rest of America," while pretending to be a mainstream political party that has the capacity to appeal to a broad national audience. I don't envy them."

Believing this is a foolish mistake. When Hitler and Mussolini were just getting started they were viewed as right-wing nationalist clowns making a name for themselves by spewing bombastic nonsense.

How could they ever get a following and pose a threat? Well, the rest is history... and we know how that worked out.

Wake up. We are in the run-up to either a civil war or a neo-facist takeover. All the reich wing needs is the emergence of a charismatic sociopath to lead them. Out somewhere in the wings, this person is waiting.

>"... be a Republican and be afraid of everything. Why would anyone vote for someone like that?"

Fear is the strongest human motivator. The gentlemen mentioned above knew that well as do modern republicans. Every other word from them is about fear... nothing about progress... it's all fear, and fear trumps reason every time.

...there's an "underground movement" assembling to resist the coming dictatorship, and believe Fox News and the Tea Parties are "manifestations of this nascent uprising."

It's not really underground then, is it?

Such pikers.

How stunned they'll be when William Ayers leads us in a takeover of Fox affiliates to air Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann commentary as the first phase of the Fairness Doctrine that we've successfully kept off the MSM's radar screen.

gphatty said: "This makes them merely human, not deranged."

The difference is, the right wing derangement syndrome is well-armed and is bringing them to rallies. The left doesn't do that (wouldn't be tolerated from law and order, which is overwhelming more rightist in its outlooks/practices than leftist ... drug wars, anybody?). Pissed off people with guns are far more worrisome than pissed off people without guns.

Robert Moskowitz on October 17, 2009 at 3:37 PM

Both a & b.

•••••

"Because the facts are that the Obama record just does not bear any resemblance at all to the wild charges made against it."
Ted Frier on October 17, 2009 at 4:15 PM

And that is the problem, complete lack of connection with or even interest in the actual facts.

•••••

"These flag-sucking half-wits"
HST

That's them, Bubba.

•••••

"My conservative friends always had the "America, love it or leave it" position during the Bush administration but it's a different tune they're singing now. It is just wrong."
Posted by: maggie on October 17, 2009 at 7:55 PM

The level of hypocrisy in their behaviour is truly mind blowing.

Sounds like what you hear every day on Hannity and Limbaugh. Yawn.

Thank goodness they don't have their own propaganda ministry and an enabling media striving to show balance by treating nuts as mainstream pundits. They could do real damage.

but they really believe that Obama has a secret agenda here.

I wouldn't go so far as to say "I believe", but Obama has gone to a lot of trouble to downplay and prevaricate about his long term close associations with Marxists and Communists (Bernadine Dohrn). His czar for communications equality is an overt fan of the broadcast clampdown in Venezuela, and an enthusiastic admirer of Chavez' regime in general.

And the "humorous" reference to Mao as a favorite political philosopher (this references a previous thread, not anything Obama has said straight out) does not sound like a joke or an irony when you listen to the whole delivery and reread the complete text.

on another, possibly related, topic, Obama has nuanced his position on Sudan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/world/africa/17sudan.html?_r=1&em

His campaign promise was completely unrealistic in the first place, as was pointed out. But the Iranian government is "witnessing" Obama's backing off from confrontation. Obama is pushing back the deadline for Iranian cooperation. I expect that he no longer believes that "all options are on the table" for preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Back to the topic at hand: the longer Obama is in office, and the more decisions he makes (like the decision on Sudan), the less relevant any "hidden agenda" becomes, as it is overwhelmed by overt information.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The price of eternal vigilance is paranoia. I don't think there is more paranoia on the right than on the left, but it's hard to keep a tally.

A revealing description of the right wing authoritarian personality, from a professor who studied the group for years and provides his book on the subject free, online:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

All the characteristics discussed here, including fear, projection, compartmentalizing contradictory facts etc are described and discussed.

The establishment Republicans are powerless because eight years of incompetent, stupidity, and short sightedness during the Bush Administration. Why should any conservative listen to a group of failures who increased spending, increased the size of the government, and were incapable of thinking about the long term.

Also, the conservative Republicans appear unhinged because the have become irrelevant. The demographic changes in the U.S. has rendered conservative political irrelevant. The last few conservatives are just reacting to being irrelevant to politics in the U.S.

What the U.S. had to do is find ways to adjust to being a one party state.

I wouldn't go so far as to say "I believe", but Obama has gone to a lot of trouble to downplay and prevaricate about his long term close associations with Marxists and Communists (Bernadine Dohrn).

First of all, there is no evidence that Obama's association with Dohrn (or Ayers) or any other Marxists or communists was anything anyone would call "close."

Secondly, I've personally known plenty of Marxists- there are still a lot of them in academia- so just by virtue of being a Marxist or Communist doesn't mean the person is some kind of evil untouchable. I suppose it's residual prejudice from the McCarthy era, but some folks act like being a Marxist or a communist is like being a self-proclaimed pedophile. It's a bizarre demonization of a political philosophy and a cheap political tool.

All that being said, Obama has absolutely nothing in his past that suggests that he himself was ever a Marxist or communist. (Although I bet he's read the Communist Manifesto, as I have, as many people who are interested in politics have. It doesn't make us commies or Marxists.) Most importantly, just by virtue of knowing communists or Marxists does not make someone a communist or Marxist any more than knowing a republican makes someone a republican.

"these Republicans believe there's an 'underground movement' assembling to resist the coming dictatorship, and believe Fox News and the Tea Parties are 'manifestations of this nascent uprising.'"

So did Timothy McVeigh. He was wrong, but about 140 people died for his delusion. As Glenn Beck would say, and as I say with more reason, I love my country and I fear for it.

Mac, you're onto something. These are the same people who cheered on and justified every power grab that Bush made for his "unitary executive," insisting that his motives were pure and Christian, and he only wanted to "keep us safe," like a wise and kind Big Brother. Now all those executive powers are in the hands of a Democrat (arrrgh) who also happens to be black (ARRRRRGH) and they're freaking out.

A lot of these rightwingnuts are driven by millenarian Christianist apocalypticism, cynically used by the Money Party to destabilize reform.

Say what you like about the President, but you had best be circumspect about Commissar Blankfein and the Goldman Sachs nomenklatura to whom he answers. Their mad communistic redistributive frenzy knows no bounds and they will crush you like a stubborn kulak's balls.

Radical right scary stuff:

I think you must take the radical right at their word. They say what they mean, and they mean what they say about biblical literalism, anti-evolution creationism, global warming is a hoax, etc. They see themselves as values voters, whose culture and world view is scoffed at by elites. Consequently, the GOP “devout warrior” just isn’t interested in what you have to say about healthcare, or anything else for that matter.

In What’s the Matter with Kansas, Thomas Frank wrote, “The gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right… against a cycle of frustration aimed at cultural liberalism.” A hostile “smack-down” is sure to follow, as mainstream culture threatens their values. The name-calling, yelling, and packing of weapons are just a first stage of intimidation. The sale of ammunition and talk of secession is almost unprecedented across the South. Some governors speak of nullification, as if the Civil War had not settled the matter. Will violence follow? Don’t believe it can’t happen.