While Fox News cameras covering the so-called 9.12 Project on the National Mall lurched away from signs morphing President Barack Obama's face into Adolph Hitler's, I zoomed in. Histrionics and manufactured paranoia were hard to avoid at the massive September 12 anti-Obama rally orchestrated by Fox News host Glenn Beck and former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey's corporate lobbying front group, Freedom Works.
When I dove into the angry mob with a camera, I captured scenes of self-proclaimed "real Americans" declaring that the community organizing group Acorn was Obama's version of Hitler's SS; that the President planned to establish concentration camps for right-wing dissidents; and that Obama was raising a private army in the guise of a civilian volunteer force. The death panel rumor is just one of a rapidly growing array of conspiracy theories reverberating through the Republican base. Each one is more hysterical than the last.
Conspiracism has proven a useful tool for distracting many of the 9.12 Project participants I met from their own economic interests. Having been convinced through endless hours of right-wing media that government involvement in their healthcare would lead to totalitarian slavery, some demonstrators told me they were content to not have healthcare at all. Others said they would stop collecting their Social Security as soon as "the government gets out of my life."
My video tour of the 9.12 Project is yet another exhibit of how the Republican Party's big tent became a one-ring circus that operates according to the rules of P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute."
(For the inside story of how the radical right took over the GOP and drove it to the margins, check out my new book, "Republican Gomorrah: Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party.")
Follow Max Blumenthal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal
Brian Levin, J.D.: Who's On First?: Haters, Conspiracists and the Conspiracists Who Hate Them
With unemployment in the United States at a 26 year high of 9.8% and the UK not far behind, a sector of the economy in both nations is booming -- extremism.
Nobody.
Went inside to inquire; head librarian said she didn't know a thing about it and she attended the LAST Tea Party. We went to the west window and saw 2 guys setting up a cardtable. OK-- I went outside and asked when the Tea Party was to start. He said 1 pm. Then one other guy showed up, wondering where the Tea Party was. I asked him if he got his info from the Eagle and he said yes.
1 pm arrives, and there's about 90 people that showed up (my estimate). I suspect that the people who attended never read the local paper. I suspect that none were locals, except me and that one guy. What I do know with certainty is that they're not Republicans, although Republicans attend. One organizer told me that he thought Republicans were too liberal.
Republican State Rep. Michael Jackson attended AND signed their rights petition...an act which spoke volumes about how desperate Repuiblicans are to get their mitts on any kind of base that opportunity presents. I've got pictures and I tried to file an Eyes & Ears report on this but ran into a major snag we really need to discuss, HuffPo.
Someone once observed, apropos of Barnum's rule, that Henry Ford clearly was a failure because he could only produce an automobile every two minutes, thereby allowing half his market to slip away. The Republican Party of today certainly cannot be considered a failure, as its fool-utilization ratio is surely at an historical high.
If you continue to miss the larger point of all these “tea bag” activities you will be losing the next election by record amounts; and rightfully so.
Missing the point is mostly caused by what I call “blind incumbence.” This means that you think that because your party holds the office that everything it does is correct; and therefore anything that opposes your party is not correct or worse, perhaps even defective, or stupid, etc.
Adopting this mindset further isolates your attitude where you become paralyzed when confronted, resorting to name calling or de-humanizing the opposition. This will be your path to defeat in the next election. As Billy Joel says,“…and so it goes.”
This has probably been posted already, but have a look at Rachel Maddow's piece about some creative counter-protesters calling themselves the Billionaires for Wealthcare. Amazingly, the real protesters who interact with them don't seem to understand that they are being satirized. Clueless followers being manipulated by corporate interests that they don't comprehend. That is the most damning comment about the teabaggers I have seen yet, and it is done without being uncivil or mean spirited. Rachel is marvelous.
Howard Stern did the same thing to a team of Obama voters, does that mean that everyone who voted for him is an idiot? Of course not!
American's are getting caught up in some weird media and political hype right now. Question everything and look at the whole picture to get to the real truth.
What kind of car can park in their own driveway (i.e. now work vans).
What color siding you can have.
What type of bushes/tress you can plant.
What size deck you can build.
What type of mailbox.
That you can't have a pool.
What heigth fence you can build.
And never, never, ever get the irony or hypocrisy....
Whats really amazing is that out of all of the things to be protesting about (Wall Street, bailouts, lost jobs, etc...) they decide to select the one issue that can have a direct positive impact on their lives, their pocket book and their stress levels (as in "one less thing to worry about"). That is health care.
Explanation, anyone?
...oh, and go ahead; keep underestimating the opposition. It will be your downfall. The MAJORITY of Americans are fed up with this guy after 9 months.
LOL..those wingnuts are dumb, social security is a government social program.