Midnight in America: the Mainstreaming of the GOP's Lunatic Fringe

The most significant takeover of the past decade isn't to be found among the telecoms, the big oil companies, or in Silicon Valley. The reconfigured entity is headquartered in Washington, but we can see and hear the results everyday on your television, radio, and computer screen. And America is much the worse for it. I'm talking about the takeover of the Republican Party by its lunatic fringe.

Reagan's GOP has been replaced by the dark, moldering, putrefied party of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Limbaugh, Coulter, and Malkin. Morning in America has given way to Midnight in America.

Of course, there the Republican Party has always had it Jesse Helmses, Spiro Agnews, and Lee Atwaters. But they were the minority, far removed from the mainstream of the Party -- Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, the first George Bush.

But these days it has become impossible to tell where the mainstream stops and the fanatical fringe begins. Just look at what the so-called "mainstream" of the party is endorsing

We have a mainstream on the right that supports torture, that is backing an Attorney General nominee who is agnostic on torture, and that rallies behind a president who refuses to define what the word "torture" means.

A mainstream that supports -- even applauds -- the behavior of Blackwater thugs.

A mainstream that continues to back the White House's delusions about Iraq at the expense of our military, our treasure, our safety, and our standing in the world.

A mainstream that supports the gutting of our civil liberties.

So, it can no longer be denied: the right wing lunatics are running the Republican asylum.

These days, the only thing that separates the RNC and Rush Limbaugh is a prescription for OxyContin.

The latest evidence: the ugly smear campaign mounted against 12-year-old brain injury survivor Graeme Frost and his family. This new-low-in-messenger-killing wasn't just the doing of the toxic talk radio, rabble-rousing right; it was Senator Mitch McConnell's office pulling together the talking points. And then lying about its involvement when exposed.

And notice the dearth of Republicans willing to distance themselves from the Swiftboating of a 12-year-old boy - a boy who has worked diligently to make a remarkable recovery from his devastating injuries, supported by a loving, hardworking, intact family. Aren't those some of the basic core values the GOP used to stand for?

Despite the fanatical right's takeover of the Republican Party, the traditional media -- with its obsession with "balance" and its pathological devotion to the idea that truth is always found in the middle -- has failed to properly document the metamorphosis. So much easier to see everything that's happening in American politics through the lens of right versus left.

Making matters worse, today's Democrats continue to tread lightly when it comes to holding accountable the fanatics running the GOP. Time and time again, the Democratic leadership allows itself to get played, run over, or distracted. Republicans want to deflect discussion of the war by arguing over newspaper ads and radio comments? Okay, Reid and Pelosi are game. Republicans want to avoid talking about children without healthcare by crying about Pete Stark's tough assessment of the president? Sure, here comes a Pelosi reprimand.

Democrats are in the majority today because their positions are in line with mainstream America. But if the lunatic fringe group now known as the Republican Party is to be stopped in its efforts to radically remake this country, the Democrats are going to have to step up and defend the mainstream that elected them.

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Comments

[gretsky]

Democrats are not in the majority now because their positions are in line with mainstream America. They are in control to remove our troops from Iraq. If the lunatic fringe ON BOTH SIDES are to be stopped, we the people need to find the courage to vote for neither and take back control of government. All those ready to change the direction of this country need to collectively vote 'other'. The demoncrats have had plenty of time now to stand up for 'mainstream' America. They have failed. Red on the Right, Blue on the Left, no thank you, I'll take Purple in the Middle.

[DineroDProfit]

Talk about:

A clear predominance of an inferior grade of U.S. power, Guantanamo Prison: penalizing mere nobody’s without trial, imprisoning without review, confining bare-foot men by chain link fence tinseled with razor wire is no Valentine to humanity.

(And this makes many Republican presidential candidates feel exquisitely!)

[longnow]

The inability of the democratic party to
take on and confront the lunatics might be
because Cheney and the DOD were listening
in on phone conversations long before they
took office much less before 911. The anthrax
letters were just a reminder. I doubt the
letters were sent by anyone connected with
our government, although DOD probably had full
knowledge. Humm...I wonder who the daring third
party could have been?

[GeorgiaSon]

I do not understand why the Christian right/evangelicals are ignoring the central point about the current crop of Republican presidential candidates. Except for Mitt Romney, if the either of the other front runners—Giuliani, McCain, Thompson—gets the nomination and is elected, the presidency will be occupied by someone who loves in gross violation of the explicit words of Jesus Christ. Not only that, we will have an adulterer in the White House, and if it’s Giuliani, we’ll have and adulteress, too.

I refer, of course, to their divorced status. Why do evangelicals have a right to ignore divorce as a criterion for judging a candidate’s fitness for office, while at the same time continuing to judge candidates by their positions on such issues as gay rights, abortion, and stem cell research? If evangelicals are bound by the literal words of an inerrant Bible to determine a candidate’s fitness for office on the basis of their positions on those issues, why are they not bound by the literal words of an inerrant Bible to deny their support to Giuliani, McCain, or Thompson because of their divorces? In fact, why are evangelicals not required to openly label Giuliani, McCain, and Thompson as adulterers, and to call Mrs. Giuliani an adulteress?

Nothing less than the literal words of Jesus Christ require them to take that stand.

Matthew 5:31-32
But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. Mark 10:3-12 adds: What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

You can’t get more explicit than that. Jesus forbids divorce, except because of the wife’s adultery. If public office should be denied to anyone who does not adhere to the words of the Bible on such issues as abortion, gay rights, and stem cell research, it should be denied also to divorced persons. Further, Jesus makes it clear that Rudolf Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson are adulterers, and Judith Giuliani is an adulteress.

[boyfood]

I think my biggest problem is the absurd lack of statesmen present in contemporary government. Mixed with the very complacency of today's Americans causes me to jitter. Yet it's times like these which cause me to reflect on the reasons why we had a revolutionary war against a detached, delusional autocrat (King George III) then but won't have one now against the current incarnation.

[Forest]

Arianna, I support everything you say here. Can we add sound to it and blast it across the US? Ears seem to be atuned to the shrill decibels of cynically staged and angry voices of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and other stooges of AM talk radio, yet they're numbed to rational voices such as your own which remind us of the carefully wrought margins of our US Constitution.

[dow2200]

I'm too old to do any real fighting these days, but I can't help but observe that if a whole lot of Republican Fascists and their right wing propaganda puppets got their heads blown off, America and the world would be a lot better off. Do I want class warfare in the U.S? No! But since the Cheney / Bush neo-Fascist regime has initiated Class Warfare against the poor, the working poor, the middle class, women and children, in short against everyone who cannot make a $10,000 contribution to their re-election campaign, I say lock and load! Bush's Idiocracy has led us into a new Dark Age. Before the 2008 Election I expect Cheney's puppet will launch another ill-conceived and castatrophic war against Iran. 64 years ago, Frank Capra made a US propaganda film showing Hitler, Mussilini, and Tojo, with the caption, "If you ever see them, don't hesitate!" Bravo!

[zitlight73]

An income tax rebellion,general strikes,boycotts of any sponsers of fascist propandists like Beck,Hannity,Rush and O'Reilly. We've got the numbers do we have the guts.

[Xysea]

I'm there. I've got the guts.

But do we really have the numbers, or are people all hat and no cattle?

[hopefulcynic]

Ran out of space yesterday, and there's one more thing to pull on your coat about concerning the now mainstream lunatic fringe that's been bugging me for about twenty-five years. It may be a relatively minor thing, but it says a lot about them - and us:
Back in '80 Ronald Reagan decided to change the political nomenclature by labeling the Democratic party as the "Democrat" party, declaring that there's nothing "democratic" about them, and we've been living with that insult ever since.
So maybe it's time to fight back. Hey, they nicked our suffix, so why not nick theirs and henceforth refer to the GOP as the "Republic" party? Tit for tat, measure for measure, "ic" for "an."
A major bit of business it ain't, but wouldn't it be interesting if DEMOCRATIC candidates referred to their opponents in the same insulting manner and wait for them to get all righteous about it.
In the overall scheme of things there are probably far more semantic invocations of greater import and impact than this, but we might as well start somewhere.­..

[HOORGANVISOR]

Yes, Bush is indeed on the lunatic fringe. He actually believes in God, the Bible, and praying to God for help everyday. He also has the nerve to think oppressed people deserve to be liberated. When he said his favorite philosopher was Jesus, Americans should have known what they were in for. Bush also believes in being faithful to his wife which is strange nowadays since we all know regular people believe in fooling around sexually. As far as I know he never had sex with an intern, pimped the White House for contributions, did only easy things that were popular with the people, received illegal campaign funds from the Chinese, or feared his wife like Clinton did. Maybe if he had acted more like Clinton and disposed of strong Christian standards like Clinton hardly ever represented he would be more popular. If only he hadn't fought a real war against terrorism like Clinton chose not to, we wouldn't have troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. So what if we might have lost a million or more Americans in terrorist acts if Bush had followed the Clinton example. So what if gas might be over $5 a gallon because Muslims would have considered us weak and would have punished us for supporting Israel by jacking oil prices up. At least we wouldn't have lost over 3000 troops in the Middle East. And isn't sparing the lives of over 3000 in exchange for losing a million American lives and spending over $5 trillion to rebuild after the attacks a better choice? I'm sure liberals think so.

[cheforacle]

Hitler also used the Bible as the bases for his policies and also attacked countries that were not a threat; again Ira lacked the capacity to threaten us in 2003 because the inspection regime of the 90's was successful. Having sex with an intern is trivial compared to the treasonous behavior of outing a CIA operative assigned to WMD issues. Gas prices were lower during the Clinton years; Iran was less of a threat and at least he tried to bomb Bin Laden. Did you support that effort in 1998? I support the war in Afghanistan but am saddened that Bush's removal of troops (Repubs, btw, accuse Dems of surrender when they talk of withdrawing troops which is clearly what Bush did in Afghanistan) has precluded us from gaining victory there. The Taliban is resurgent and Bush does nothing about the central front of the war, the borderlands in Pakistan. Al Qaeda was weakened after we invaded in 2001 but is much stronger as a result of our invasion of Iraq. If I used the tone you do I'd have to say that Bush supports Al Qaeda.

[andyg]

So Hitler killed the jews because of the Bible, WHAT?.

[toolman1]

I am glad there is someone else like me out here. Thanks for your comments..­.and there are far more people out here that think like you than there is of these liberal types. I still can understand how someone can think they way they do. I would be scared to death that a bolt of lightning would strike me down from heaven for thinking like that. Keep it up Hoorganvisor!

[Xysea]

And therein lies the crux of the problem.

I say it every day. No bolt of lightning.

Hmmm...

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

[maddogbitesback]

That is just an amazing statement. Somehow I can't equate the sins of Clinton to the sins of Bush. Bush is a liar and a thief. He and others such as Cheney planned to go to war with Iraq long before 9/11. The war was over oil and not over WMD or threats by al Quaeda. The lies continue. The theft continues. Americans have lost their constitutional rights. And you compare Bush to Clinton. I am truly amazed by the desire some people have to robbed blind and lose what money can't buy - freedom and respect.

[DavidPerkins]

"A million American lives?" Where did you get this outlandish number? If Al Gore had been President -as he was elected by the people to be- then perhaps Al Qaeda wouldn't have been able to pull off 9/11 (or wouldn't have felt the need to); after all, Clinton/Gore had stop them before, most spectacularly on Y2K. And Mid-East PEACE would have been pursued.
As for the 3000 (now almost 4000) American lives lost in Iraq, try telling just one of those Gold Star Mothers that the "exchange" was good!
I see you, like me, are a Follower of Christ and a Bible reader, so here's a quote about President Bush from Proverbs 17:7 "We don’t expect eloquence from fools, nor do we expect lies from our leaders."
In case you want to bring up what Jesus Christ said, well, try "Love your enemies" "Turn the other cheek" "Love your neighbor as yourself" and how about "Take care of the least of these?"
Love
David Perkins

[gretsky]

The only war we should be in now is in Afganistan.
Our troops are being misused by being in Iraq. They will be in even more dire circumstances if the Bush Admin. gets its wish to go into Iran. By not committing the sins you stated above, Bush saved it all up for one really big blunder...­.lying to the American people and convincing cowardly representatives to follow his idiotic war cries (Iraq) And by the way....Gas should be over $5 per gallon, why should we make our grandchildren pay for our stupid actions.

[HOORGANVISOR]

I admit that I am a right-wing lunatic. My beliefs are really out there. I actually believe in telling the truth no matter how hard it hurts for liberals to believe it. I also believe in Godly morality and fundamentalism. That's right. I believe we should love others and even pray for our enemies that they will see the light and reform. That definitely is radical. I also believe in the sanctity of life and that those who believe doing unto others is to kill them, then they should be willing to have that done unto them, like the Bible says.

There are a lot of "whacko" things I believe. I believe in a strong America, private enterprise and capitalism, honesty in government, support for our troops as they try to liberate people in Iraq and Afghanistan, God, and those who believe many of the things I believe. I think that the people are better able to take care of themselves than the government and we need less government intervention. I believe in lower taxes and people having more control over their finances. I also believe we can be better than most liberals want to believe and that they should get our of our way to let us succeed. If that is being a right-wing whacko just like Rush Limbaugh, I'm guilty. I've never even had intercourse with a woman because I believe in moral behaviour. Talk about being a whacko.

[jimpharo]

This was hys-ter-i-cal. Almost a too-perfect parody of right-wing rants.

All us lib'ruls want is for a lifetime of freeloading!

Well done, you.

[SpencerCat]

Very amusing! Are you saying that intercourse is immoral? Interesting concept.

Minor correction: our troops are not "liberating" anyone in Iraq, they are in the middle of a civil war.

[areacode631]

says the leftist media

[DavidPerkins]

One more answer to you, Hoorganvisor.
You said: " believe we should love others and even pray for our enemies that they will see the light and reform." This is NOT what Jesus Christ said. Jesus said to "Love your enemies." Period. "See the light and reform" is exactly the same thing Osama Bin Laden is telling us; to "See the light (this time of his version of Islam) and reform."
BTW If you listen to Rush Limbaugh, the fruit of your Christianity is spoiled! This man is mean and goes against everything found in the Bible. You better get away from him, fast!
Love
David Perkins

[kart0624]

Hooraganvisor:
"I believe in a strong America, private enterprise and capitalism, honesty in government, support for our troops as they try to liberate people in Iraq and Afghanistan, God, and those who believe many of the things I believe"

You mean to say the "Enron" type of Capitalism,yeah I know what you mean by that. If that's what you mean when you talk about all "private enterprise", sorry that's not what everybody wants. Nobody in here wants the government to control everything, but a free rein to do whatever the hell you want with the resources, environment, ethics etc is not something most of America wants either.

You must very delusional when you start talking about liberating people in other countries, do you even know the history of Iraq or how Saddam even came to power? Who gave him the WMD's to him in the first place? Also, do you "moral" people know that there are more people dying in Darfur and I don't see any "compasionate conservative" calling for American troops on the ground. I am sorry that I forgot, you belong to the "moral" class that just calls for these things when there is OIL involved.

You also believe in the "sanctity of life", meaning only before it's born and who the hell cares after it's born or what happens to children in atrocious situations.

You are right low-taxes, plus subsidies for the defense-co­nglomerate­s are the best way to go. You are right instead of spending it on important things like education, health-care and other programs, it should be spent on developing deadly weapons that kill more people. And to top it all, export those weapons and help kill more people around the world.

That is the best case the so called neo-conser­vatives(Ro­n Paul is a real conservative) of today have put up. Good work......­..

[patriotscholar]

There was a song that represented people like you years ago. Something like "Praise God and Pass The Ammunition". I cannot for the life of me fathom how people can say they believe in an administration that has pretty much ignored the ten commandments and trample on human rights. And, this administration is definitely NOT conservative. If that is what you believe, fine, it is a free country. I believe that we could win much of what they think they are after using brains instead of bombs, ok?

[realpolitic]

Perhaps because Republicans have gone so far to the right Democrats are timid. Democrats do not seem to know most of the country does not want us to torture or does not want to be illegally wiretapped. Act on principle and let the voters decide at the ballot box.

Also, conservative media can distort and be counter-factual without restraint. The rest of the media has the burden of relying on facts to sell their arguments.

[areacode631]

the rest of the media relies on facts. You are very dilusional

[MordechaiShiblikov]

It's already over for us. What, conceivably, can cleanse the filthy public toilet that is contemporary American politics? Common decency is now considered radically left wing. So what's going to turn all this around? Clinton? Obama? Bullshit! Think Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich have a chance? What miracle is going to vanquish the aggressive and homicidal stupidity and mediocrity that is the United States today?

[Lelu]

What if Ron Paul and Kucinich ran on one ticket? I don't know if that's actually possible (if it's not, it should be) but I think it would actually cause a big stir.

[zitlight73]

You need to read Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse. If there are election next year I think the winner is already picked. Either Hillary or Rudy
anybody else and the Cheney-Bush crime syndicate might face prosecution of their high crimes and treason. Who ever has the most campaign money by Groundhog's Day is the hand picked winner. All that money isn't donations as much as investment­s.Big Oil was Bush's main backers and it certainly paid off well for them. With computers doing the voting the fix is in.

[tbyrd56]

nighty night GOP...i hope your dreams...a­re the nightmares ~ you have created (*~*)

[nowaterboardUSA]

The Repubican Party needs to be marginalized as the Nazi Party and KKK have been. That way they can appeal to their pathetic small following - freedom of speech, it can be a bitch- and leave the rest of us alone. Then when they commit crime - No Scooty Libby Free Jail Pass.

[HillbillyBob]

Unfortunately the Neokkkons Are the decendants of the Nazi and KKK. same families same money same selfish, inbred, ingrained greed for power.
WTC was the 'burning of the Reichstag' Fixed elections( in florida our ballots were taken from the polling place and put directly into truck mounted shredders, this was in the wee hours of the morning after the 2000 election. Our dog needed a late night walkie. I and my partner were eye witness. and when we tried to speak up I was libelled as a terrorist, put on no fly list and had our home ransacked without warrant or notification in 2003. While we were not home, neighbors witnessed men in 'unmarked black cars with federal tags' Every file and computer had been gotten into and there was a bottle of quarters (about 100$ worth) on the dresser, if it were a robbery the money and tvs would have been gone.

[mellene]

The lunatic fringe seems to have a lock on Congress. They want to see poor people mistreated by the government yet line the pockets of the rich with even more spoils than in the past. Our unitary president should be a lameduck now but is controlling his minions by allowing the fear and war mongering card to continue to be played.