The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms--he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point. Like religious millenialists he expresses the anxiety of those who are living through the last days and he is sometimes disposed to set a date fort the apocalypse. - Dr. Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" published in Harper's Magazine, November 1964
"The clock is ticking 11:59. This is our liberty and tyranny moment. This is about patriotism and manning up." - Representative Michele Bachmann, October 30, 2009 on the Sean Hannity Show
"Our nation is at a crossroads, and this is once again a "time for choosing." - Sarah Palin in her endorsement of Doug Hoffman on October 22, 2009
It is frightening out there and not just because this is All Hallow's Eve. To watch today's GOP in action doesn't just give one pause for concern, it leads to discussions of emigrating should ever such madness prevail nationally at the polls. In today's Republican Party, it is the Jacobin wing that is seemingly ascendant. The Tea Party set are today's sans-coulottes and like those of yore, they are set on purging their party of any and all who do not subscribe to their rabid orthodoxy. Even former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is deemed too moderate.
It is their irrationality that is most worrisome. To Michelle Malkin, Dede Scozzafava is a "radical leftist" even as Frank Rich points out Ms. Scozzafava is "a mainstream conservative by New York standards" with a voting record that is "slightly to the right of her fellow Republicans in the Assembly." Ms. Scozzafava's crime, it seems, is that she supports the right to choose and same-sex marriage. To me, that only makes her human. Then there's Erick Erickson of Red State who is a calling for a purge of the GOP establishment. Right because Michael Steele, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell aren't out of touch enough. Yup, that's the problem.
But give Malkin and Erickson their due. By screaming louder, they beat even the "more mainstream" Tim Pawlenty into submission. And flush with victory, next in their periscope of intolerance is to sink the candidacies of Charlie Crist, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina with torpedoes named Marco Rubio, Steve Poizner, and Chuck DeVore. But even GOP stalwarts sitting in the United States Senate are not safe in this ugly environment. Never mind Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins. But suddenly even Senator Lindsey Graham is a persona non grata in the GOP.
Three weeks ago by co-authoring a New York Times opinion piece on climate change with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Graham earned the wrath of the right.
In their op-ed, Senators Graham and Kerry sketched a potential compromise on energy and climate. The Democrats would allow offshore oil drilling and new nuclear power plants, while Republicans would recognize the urgency of global warming and accepting caps on carbon emissions from big factories and power plants. Geez, such sanity.
But insanity would rear its ugly head. Appearing before agitated constituents in Greenville, South Carolina the day after the op-ed was published, amid yells of "Traitor!" and shouted demands that he switch parties, Senator Graham could only lament:
"We're not going to be the party of angry white guys."
No, perhaps not. With Palin and Bachmann now the effectively the soul of the GOP, the Party of Lincoln isn't just angry white guys. It is, however, the party of the paranoid, the not so bright and the wholly intolerant - not exactly a winning combination. While I await a Republican Thermidor, I'll brush up on my Richard Hofstader, as valid in 2009 as it was in 1964.
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