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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Is today's right wing crazy more crazy than that of a decade ago?

It sure seems like it. For instance, there is a syndicated radio program Midnight Radio Network, directed at truckers - and heard in Los Angeles on KABC-AM from midnight to three o'clock in the morning. It's more extreme than Limbaugh, if that's possible. The very pugnacious hosts, Eric Harley and Gary McNamara, say thinks like Obama is a Marxist and that if he gets into power we will all be "enslaved" (presumably economically). Of course, it's always Barack Hussein Obama, and the callers into the show are similarly very, very opposed to him and any other Democrat.

Interestingly, for a show that is supposed to be on the side of truckers, the hosts were defending oil companies earlier this year, saying that they deserved the huge profits they were racking up when commodity prices were soaring.

In any event, it appears that the right wing is set to be kind of what it was like during the Clinton years when Bill and Hillary were accused of murders, drug smuggling, and hanging crack pipes on the White House Christmas tree. But those attacks took time go get momentum and weren't part of the mix when Clinton first assumed office.

Will we see an endless stream of charges that Obama is a secret traitor ready to hand over the country to terrorists? Like the way McCarthy attacked George C. Marshall:
On June 14, 1951, as the Korean war stalemated in heavy fighting between American and Chinese forces, Republican Senator Joe McCarthy attacked. He charged that Marshall was directly responsible for the "loss of China," as China turned from friend to foe. McCarthy said the only way to explain why the U.S. "fell from our position as the most powerful Nation on earth at the end of World War II to a position of declared weakness by our leadership" was because of "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man." McCarthy said that "If Marshall were merely stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that part of his decisions would serve this country's interest." McCarthy argued that General Albert Coady Wedemeyer had prepared a wise plan that would keep China a valued ally, but that it had been sabotaged; "only in treason can we find why evil genius thwarted and frustrated it." McCarthy suggested that Marshall was old and feeble and easily duped; he did not charge Marshall with treason. Specifically McCarthy alleged:
"When Marshall was sent to China with secret State Department orders, the Communists at that time were bottled up in two areas and were fighting a losing battle, but that because of those orders the situation was radically changed in favor of the Communists. Under those orders, as we know, Marshall embargoed all arms and ammunition to our allies in China. He forced the opening of the Nationalist-held Kalgan Mountain pass into Manchuria, to the end that the Chinese Communists gained access to the mountains of captured Japanese equipment. No need to tell the country about how Marshall tried to force Chiang Kai-shek to form a partnership government with the Communists."
Given what's been said recently by NRO luminaries Stanley Kurtz, Andy McCarthy, Victor David Hansen, et al, maybe we're headed to a level of crazy that prevailed in the 1950's.



5 comments

I expect the Republicans to treat Barack Obama with the same respect and dignity as the Democrats have treated George Bush.

Maybe a little less.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/30/2008 5:57 AM  

What I've noticed is that AM-radio/right-wing blogs have pretty much been trying the same stuff against Obama that they tried against Kerry four years and it's NOT working this time around. So no surprise to see them turn up the volume in desperation.

Funny hear a show for truckers defending oil companies. Just a bit out of touch with their core audience it seems. Maybe it's a show for people who aren't truckers but want to listen to what they think truckers should be listening to?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/30/2008 6:25 AM  

I expect the Republicans to treat Barack Obama with the same respect and dignity as the Democrats have treated George Bush.

I expect disgruntled Republican back-benchers to introduce articles of impeachment at 12:15 p.m. on January 20.

Having, of course, to do with insane bullshit such as an allegedly phony birth certificate. Crybaby Republicans over the next eight years will do precisely what they did in the 90s -- seek to destroy a Democratic president's capacity to govern. And jms will cheer them on every step of the way.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/30/2008 12:28 PM  

I remember Clinton's first State of the Union speech shortly after his inauguration. He said he wanted to provide affordable health care for everyone and the Republican Representatives and Senators laughed in his face. It was the first time I'd ever witnessed such disrespect of a President and knew then and there that the Republicans would never accept Clinton as President and do everything in their power to kick him out of office.

By Blogger gmoke, at 10/30/2008 9:55 PM  

... Republicans ... will ... seek to destroy [Obama's]capacity to govern.

“That government is best which governs least;” -- Thoreau

We'll be working on that.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/31/2008 7:56 PM  

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