David Frum: "Paranoid Delusions" Undermining GOP Argument

L.A. Times:

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. [...]

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.

Read the whole story: L.A. Times

Comments

[skullman]

Where are the elder statesmen in the GOP? Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Goldwater, Dirksen, and many others are rolling over in their graves. I can see when some of the GOP elders are interviewed that they don't like the turn their party has taken, but they won't speak out forcefully against it. They are scared of being called out by Limbaugh, even though they're not running for anything anymore. Some of these guys are of the "greatest generation", its time for some of them to put their country first once again and speak out.

[PepeLepew]

I keep making this point time and again, but the tro//s keep dodging the question.

[skullman]

I would like to see Bob Dole, and GHW Bush step up, for a start.

[Dbos]

Republicans are fear mongers and their followers are scared chicken hawks.

[nancychatter]

Just watched "Sicko" by Michael Moore.
I was reminded (again) how inadequate our healthcare system is. The scenes where the 9-11 rescue workers were seen without insurance cards (or proof of citizenship, for that matter) were priceless..
The doctors were so kind it was truly amazing. When they went to a pharmacy, one woman got an inhaler that costs $150 in the US and 3.25 pesos(5 CENTS) in Cuba. The fact that they spend $251 per person per year compared to our $7,000 boogles the mind, iilustrates our why we need change so badly.
This documentary is more relevant now than ever.. I wish Fox News would have the nerve to air, so their viewers could get another view. But I just as well might wish for world peace(which I do).

( to others please excuse my typos sometimes, I think faster than I type and taking the time to edit is sometime hard)

[Photon55]

While the American people have voted for change, the health care industry has not. I'm amazed that the protestors at the Saturday rally in their ignorance and misguided rants point blame at Obama and the current administration relieving the Bush administration of any accountablity or reponsibility for their current "displeasure" . It is asounding that these same people who have voted against their own best interests and welfare for years, now have the gall to annoy us all with their outlandish behavior. We all know the country is in a mess, but to lay the blame on Obama with rancorous hyperbole, calling him Hitler, socialist, alien is beyond reason. I guess it would be too much to ask them to tone down the anger and hate, because they seem to be enjoying it so much.

[Periwinkle]

Republicans are now reaping the benefits of 8 years of frightening people into believing there was a terrorist behind every tree and that countries than hadn't attacked us must be obliterated "just in case." There were the terror alerts - red, yellow, orange - that many of us thought quite amusing, but probably caused some of the 9/12 march people to lock themselves in their houses and cover the windows with plastic sheeting and duct tape. Now these demented patriots are threatening to arm themselves and overthrow the government. If that doesn't make anyone with an iota of gray matter flee the Republican Party, I don't know what will.

[Brian Ross - Huffpost Blogger]

This from David Frum, one of the masters of the dark arts of hyperbolic political speech.

[scrzbill]

What? Your not going to trust a doctor? Someone who has been at HP almost a month already?

[scrzbill]

These cretins talk about Death Panels. There were two stories at Crooks and Liars today. One was about the lady that formed a union and her story was made a movie(norma Rae). The real Norma Ray died from Cancer today. Her insurance company would not approve her treatments in time for them to be effective. The second story is about Cigna. A woman was sick all the time. She tried medicine after medicine. After a year of not getting better, she received a call from CIGNA telling her she was making things up and they were going to drop her. She went to her doctor to get her records. In her records there was a CT that clearly showed she had cancer a year before and CIGNA did not want to treat it. Death panels. Righties Does this story sound like your friends the insurance companies?
Faux deceives you believe

[Lest We Forget]

So, with the public option the US gov't becomes your insurance company. Somehow I don't feel much better.

[DrCardio]

I do.

[Antifascist-08]

You should. The government would never do that to anyone. In government programs, the doctors make the decisions.

In the private sector, the insurance companies make the decisions.

What part of this do you not get?

[ClevelandTom]

Who would you rather have between you and your treatment? A government bureaucrat or an insurance company bureaucrat who stands to gain personally if they keep payments down?

[Steven Duke]

This equivalence game the MSM is playing and allowing to be played by these whack jobs is just disgusting. These are the same people who cheered the US to war, hijacked the presidency, spent a generation destroying the New Deal only to bring about financial and economic ruin, politicized and poisoned every part of our government, and now instead of confronting them the MSM goes running to them like the greatest new shiny thing ever. What absurdity. Why do these thugs get to play by their own rules and how is it that a profession given explicite protection in our system of law turned itself into just another tool for moneyed interests? The media is a joke and whatever is left of the journalistic profession had better start standing up and calling out what is being done. People so ignorant and stupid they don't have the basic congnetive ability to understand what it is they are being used for and that they themselves are the very thing they claim to be protesting­...Fascist brown shirt n azi thugs!

[DrCardio]

Just like doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, these pundits on news channels, particularly FOX news should be made to take some sort of a legally binding oath to keep the interests of the people above that of their own.

[nancychatter]

Sorry but it seems like they take an oath to their hair dressers and cosmetic surgeons because most of them at Fox don't seem to have very few credential but "not a hair out of place, veeners on their teeth, lots of make-up and right - wing extremism.
( I can't believe I just said that, but it is the truth)

[CologneCitizen]

I never knew America's underbelly was that large.

[ywcachieve]

The media is helping to fan this lunacy coming from the Repubs.

[scrzbill]

The media is in with this message. There is one national network that has said they were the opposition to Obama. faux deceives you believe

[austin4]

Paranoid Delusions.­.......now that's an understate­ment......­.I could think of better words,,,but it would never pass the censors.

[AirViceMarshalPark]

Censors?

A better term would be HuffPo Death Panel.

[LemonMeringue]

Freedom Works astroturfing these sh3ep to smear the President is the last straw. Freedom Works is the insurance industry. Do something.

RETALIATE against insurance companies with a REVERSE BOYCOTT.

Flood them with claims. Make those appointments. You know you need something attended to. You know everyone in your family should have a well check-up every year.

The $40 will be better spent than throwing it away on some bribed politician. The $40 will go right back into your community, and a bunch more will be sucked from the insurance company into your community.

Make those appointments. You never know when you might lose that insurance.

[nellie]

GlennBeck is now the voice of the GOP. If people like David Frum have a problem with that, they should have tried to do something about it long before now.

it's not like we all didn't see it coming.

[ywcachieve]

Yep, the Grand Dragon of the K.K.K. is the leader of the GOP

[DrCardio]

Glenn is second in command. Palin is the ring leader. WTF is she going to do in China? What could they possible need to talk to her about? And the conversation is being kept quiet? So ya, those two classy clams are the POTUS and VP of their little makeshift confederate presidency.

[AtomicSplash]

The best part is how the conservatives leadership in congress feeds the paranoid delusions. These people are going to bury themselves