It's one thing to hate someone's ideas; it's a completely different thing to hate the person. Inside of the conservative movement something dangerous has been growing, something that threatens not only the nation, but the idea of a free and fair democracy: conservative fanaticism. This incredible hazardous movement is preached by people like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh, but was always thought of as relatively acceptable part of the nation's political discourse. However, recently it has shown its teeth, causing violent and incendiary remarks at McCain campaign rallies, trying to scare America out of voting for Barack Obama, even turning on some of its caretakers such as Kathleen Parker and Christopher Buckley, but what its sights are truly set on are the very values of democracy.
How conservatism created conservative fanaticism is a simple but long process that began with the takeover of Christianity in America by the right. With America's traditional moral leaders in their bed, conservatives were free to label all the stances they opposed, the stances of the left, as "immoral" and "ungodly," which was fine, if they disagreed with certain views they had every right to say so. But then came the nationally broadcast conservative radio and television hosts, voices like that of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, who changed the game completely. These people brought the message of moral superiority out of the churches and into the streets, but they infused it with anger and outrage. They brought about a new level of polarization, for them the problem was no longer the ideas of the left, but instead the people on the left. They preached the message that the ideas themselves weren't immoral or ungodly, but instead the people on the left were the immoral and ungodly ones and that was just reflected in their ideas. These people created in their followers the idea that leaders from the left are illegitimate, that they have no right to rule the nation. Even now they try to convince America that an Obama presidency should not and cannot be respected, because he is a friend to terrorists and a communist, both completely ridiculous views to the informed voter, but a very serious concern to those who have already devoted themselves to church of conservative fanaticism.
This shift from hating the ideas to hating the person is what created and still creates conservative fanatics. I refer to them as fanatics for two reasons; one, because of their fanatic devotion that causes them to do things like send 12,000 hateful emails to one of their own, Kathleen Parker, as soon as she steps out of line, some of them stating that she should have been aborted, an odd desire for a staunchly pro-life crowd. Two, because of the religious nature of their beliefs, in that they refuse to listen to any reason in favor of faith based arguments, such as the idea that favoring health care makes one a communist, or a Nazi sympathizer, or believing that someone who feels that the state should not discriminate when it comes to marriage rights is a heathen absent of any moral compass, or that a Christian presidential candidate is secretly a Muslim terrorist. These arguments are not logical, they are believed with faith by the people who listen to these fanatics. This is what changes political discussion from "I believe my ideas are the correct ones because of the following reasons," into the much less productive "I am better then you so I don't have to listen to anything you say."
This is incredibly destructive to the democratic process, because it leads to a misinformed and polarized political environment; one that discourages intelligent debate and could become violent. Lately we have seen that the conservative crowds are becoming more militant, and many of the voices of conservative fanaticism fear an Obama presidency. Meanwhile, the voices of their leaders continue to belittle people who think differently from them, associating them with terrorists or Nazis, often yelling in anger at a guest or at the idea of liberal leadership. Their brand of incendiary remarks can be seen in many other places, however, the view that others are morally inferior people who need to be ousted is usually reserved for religious radicals (such as the Islamic radicals that they claim to be against), and has no place in America, it is anti-American. What we need in this country is not this kind of fanaticism, what we need is honest, intelligent political discourse. I hope one day conservative talk and radio show hosts will soon sound like William F. Buckley, and less like Ahmadinejad.