“The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama”

[groovedaddy]

In his new book, “The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama,” the progressive journalist Will Bunch serves up his own anatomy of the Tea Party movement, that loose agglomeration of right-wing insurgents, libertarians, conservatives, evangelicals, survivalists, gun-rights crusaders, antitax protesters, deficit hawks, antigovernment zealots, militia members, Ayn Randers, Limbaugh “ditto heads,” Glenn Beck fanatics, birthers, Birchers, and supporters of Sarah Palin and Ron Paul.

As Mr. Bunch sees it, there are three main reasons for the rise of the Tea Party:

1. “Genuine anger and panic by rank-and-file conservatives” who were deeply frustrated by the election of Barack Obama, and who “suddenly saw a world in which — thanks to a growing electoral base that did not think or look like them — their Reaganist conservative philosophy might be shut out of power for good.”

2. “The electronic media” — including the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and local talk radio imitators, as well as social networking forces like Facebook and Twitter — which have enabled “like-minded Obama naysayers” to come together “without actual journalists intervening to filter out untrue information like the canard about the president’s birth certificate.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/books/14book.html?th&emc=th

[RamboLiberal]

1. Read this book in about a week

I highly recommend it. Great inside look at the people who identify themselves as Tea Party, Oathkeepers, etc. Also how the likes of Beck can drive a few into murder!

[tulsakatz]

2. I just finished reading this book.......

In fact, I just finished reading it a couple of days ago. It's excellent!! And considering current events, especially since the Delaware primary, it is especially informative......

[RamboLiberal]

3. Yep - Will Bunch is probably one of the few pundits not shocked

today by O' Donnell's win.

[tulsakatz]

4. having just finished reading that book........

I wasn't that surprised either! In fact, that book does a good job of explaining how O'Donnell won and why!

[RamboLiberal]

5. I see Russ Murphy - 9-12 'er & Tea Partier Bunch wrote about

Was right up there front & center talking to the media Tues night at O' Donnell victory party!

[tulsakatz]

6. I didn't notice him but I wasn't looking for him either.....

...having said that, I'm not surprised that he was. I thought it was funny, in the book, where Rove went to meet with some of them but they weren't impressed with Rove since he seemed (to them) snobby and too much like the usual politicians they are against. Maybe that's one reason why Rove is so critical of them now........because they did not bow to his will of backing Castle.