The Far Right's First 100 Days: Shifting Into Overdrive

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



The Far Right's First 100 Days: Shifting Into Overdrive
By Sara Robinson

April 29th, 2009 - 9:03am ET


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Somewhere back in February, about three weeks into the Obama Administration, everybody on the left suddenly noticed that there was something different going on with the conservatives. The outrageous screeds and paranoid delusions sounded pretty much as they always had -- but there was a new fury behind them, a strident urgency that hadn't been there before, and a very audible shift of the gears in right-wing behavior and rhetoric. None of this came as a surprise to veteran right-wing watchers -- we'd been predicting a bad backlash since the 2006 election -- but three months into the new administration, it's increasingly hard to ignore the fact that this ominous new trend is taking on a momentum of its own.

On April 7, the Department of Homeland Security ratified some of those observations. Fueled by bone-deep racism, an unnatural terror of liberal government, frustration over the economic downturn, and fears about America's loss of world standing, they said, the militant right wing is indeed rising again. Their numbers are up, their talk is turning ugly, and it's not unthinkable that we could be in for a wave of domestic terrorism unseen since the mid-90s.


Click the logo for more views on President Obama's first 100 days and the road ahead. I've been meaning for a while to talk about what changed after the Inauguration, and why, and what it means to the country going forward. Our observance of the end of the First 100 Days seems to be a good time to do that.

The DHS report laid out the history and the current drivers in straight factual terms, and made some safe predictions about what might make the situation worse. (Interestingly, the nightmare scenario for most right-wing watchers -- a white-hot backlash in the wake of another major terrorist attack -- appears nowhere in the DHS assessment. Perhaps they didn't want to put ideas into paranoid right-wing heads.) But the report stopped short of taking the next step. We need to look at what long experience has taught us about the past escalation patterns of right-wing rhetoric and violence, and figure out where we currently stand within those patterns. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009041828/far-rights-first-100-days-shifting-overdrive

[MichiganVote]

1. They are all out of ideas. The repub's preach ideology and we demand ideas. Big difference.

[pscot]

2. The wingnuts better learn to pace themselves

They're in for a long 8 years. What will they do if outrage fatigue sets in?

[Grinchie]

4. I think the current outrage is at their own blind stupidity.

They supported a bunch of crooks and liars for the past 8 years, and the steady outpouring of information to back it up is too much for compulsory followers. The frustration has to blow out in ways that they cannot allow, given their inherant disposition to obey the party leaders.

They will continue to channel the dirty deeds of their own onto democrats, because it's the only way they can maintain the illusion that they werent responsible for the collapse of government and the economy, as well as sitting idly by while the constitution was shredded with their glazed eyes fixed on the rovian trick of the day.

[pscot]

5. I think you give them way too much credit

for self-awareness. These people have barely made it down out of the trees. They are feral humans, driven mainly by fear and greed. Thinking terrifies them and arouses their suspicion. They don't understand it, and they feel that anyone who thinks must be plotting against them.

[Mopar151]

6. That's not all of them -

But you are SO right about many of 'em. That fear of thinkin' thing is powerful, indeed.

[The Magistrate]

3. An Excellent And Astute Piece, Sir: Thank You For Sharing It