“…collapse into paranoid fantasy.”
Some fear GOP is being carried to the extreme
The Republican establishment hopes cooler heads will prevail over strongly anti-Obama parts of the conservative base.
Reporting from Washington – Amid a rebirth of conservative activism that could help Republicans win elections next year, some party insiders now fear that extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories coming from the angry reaches of the conservative base are undermining the GOP’s broader credibility and casting it as the party of the paranoid.
Such insiders point to theories running rampant on the Internet, such as the idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is thus ineligible to be president, or that he is a communist, or that his allies want to set up Nazi-like detention camps for political opponents. Those theories, the insiders say, have stoked the GOP base and have created a “purist” climate in which a figure such as Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) is lionized for his “You lie!” outburst last week when Obama addressed Congress.
They are “wild accusations and the paranoid delusions coming from the fever swamps,” said David Frum, a conservative author and speechwriter for President George W. Bush who is among the more vocal critics of the party base and of the conservative talk show hosts helping to fan the unrest.
“Like all conservatives, I am concerned about this administration’s accumulation of economic power,” Frum said. “Still, you have to be aware that there’s a line where legitimate concerns begin to collapse into paranoid fantasy.”</em>
The Republican establishment hopes cooler heads will prevail? I don’t believe they have such, anymore.
There are only two ways this ends for the GOP. One, somebody goes all the bubba rhetoric to the extreme and takes out Obama, making him instantly a martyr and ending the GOP as we know it for the foreseeable future.
Or…the economy improves enough that people return to work and their 401ks swell a bit, and it will be back to tailgating at NASCAR, not teabagging on TV. The vast majority of voters aren’t the screeching goons seen on TV, nor do they watch cable news. Those of us who follow current events closely are trapped into the debate created by pundits and the corporate propaganda machine called the media far too much, and we note each twitch and blathering as yardage in some real-life football game, with some notion of someone “winning”.
The sad sorry truth is, as long as we’re circling each other in the barnyard, crowing and nipping at each other, we’re doing exactly what those in power wish us to do – which is to ignore them. Ignore the main contributors to “your” candidate. Ignore peak oil. Ignore how power is actually used in DC, and to what ends. Ignore the basic tenet of our American identity, circa 2009- shortsightedness. From the beginning of Dubya’s reign of terror up to today, America has sat idly by and allowed thieves to rob us blind- first in the form of tax cuts to the uber rich and the gutting of any meaningful regulation aimed at curbing the excesses of industry, to today, where Obama is about to sign away any shot at altering our greed fueled, “dividend by death” healthcare system in yet another sop to the banker boys who installed him. America has gutted itself for short term gain, attempting to punt its problems down the road to another generation. Our bought and paid for Congress is a sickening travesty of governance who should all be shot for treason.
A note to the teabaggers out there, its not socialism you’re fighting, its plutocracy. Look it up. Greedy, shortsighted and vicious are all words to describe our financial elites…but not stupid. Do you really think that Obama’s main contributors- a large portion of which are bankers-
</a> are going to toss their money at some “marxistsocialistcommunist” Kenyan? Get real. They hired a guy to do a job. He’s doing that job.
And that ain’t no paranoid fantasy. It’s what they do.
