I'm not a professional historian, but I was originally trained as one. And in my main area of study (European history after 1815, with a focus on Mitteleuropa between 1914 and '45) there were plentiful examples of one side, or party; even scientists and artists, continually crossing lines. And the thing about crossing lines: Whether it's political or cultural, it's always about changing what is perceived as permissible.
And in this mid-cycle election year, there are more candidates for Congress -- all of them Republicans, or running as one -- spouting utterly crazy nonsense. Stupid nonsense, as if they had been raised on a diet of right-wing talk radio, where nothing has to relate to reality and there's no accountability for what gets said.
Rand Paul. Tommy Tancredo. Sharron Angle. Michelle Bachmann. Pat Toomey. Meg Whitman. Black helicopters, race miscegenation; attacks on southwestern cities by armies of Mexican drug lords; aliens in control of banks and governments. Stupid nonsense, man -- and that's just the most visible stuff.
There are 16-plus million people out of work; the National Debt is nearly $14 Trillion Dollars (Thanks, Lil' Boots!). Between 2 and 3 million gallons of oil were released into the Gulf. The Taliban are resurgent, still, in Afghanistan. What does the Fox Cable crap these pretend politicians keep spouting have to do with reality? Why do we coddle and enable this kind of adolescent behavior when the threats we face are so deadly serious?
In a way, this was the point of the post about Newt Gingrich below: When a person's statements or conduct are seen objectively as negative or harmful -- and none of that seems to affect their chances of being elected to high public office -- then something is fundamentally wrong... with our electoral system, with our media, with the culture.
At TPM Media, a reader sent an email which discussed this.
I understand there is a strong temptation to look at primary victories by extreme [Republican or Teabagger] candidates ... "good for Democrats." As a strong Democratic partisan I also see them that way... On the other hand, I find it disturbing that [an extremist candidate] was able to win the primary of a major political party.
As a Democrat, I want to say "See, look: the Republicans have gone crazy." But as an American I find the trend toward conspiracy theories and paranoia (on both the right and the left) profoundly disturbing.
It's simply not healthy for a Democracy when you have a relatively large percentage of the population believing crazy theories about plots against the United States executed by the UN, or a secret one-world government, or whatever it is these folks believe. This kind of paranoia is poisonous to a Democracy, and opens the doors to demagoguery of the most dangerous type.
Of course this is nothing new, this kind of thinking always seems to take hold to a certain degree during times of great stress and especially economic hardship. But the fact that this kind of thing is predictable does not make it any less dangerous. Having a major party candidate l...spouting this kind of nonsense only serves to further legitimize it, whether he wins or not. The press needs to be extremely vigilant against these kinds of delusions, ruthlessly exposing them to the cold light of fact and rationality.
Think Fox will do that? Little Rupert's business model is based on packaging and selling extremism, rumor and innuendo as fact. The Mainstream Media appears to treat it all as theater.
Seriously, in order for a Right-wing candidate (or, a politician) to be discredited, it almost seems that they would have to be caught, on camera, in a love nest with an underage, same-sex partner, while torturing and killing defenseless animals (Kind of a touchy issue with me).
And even then, Lard Boy would claim they'd been "set up" and victimized by a vicious, all-powerful liberal press; House Minority Leader Boner would publicly state that "we should wait for all the facts to come in", and the candidate would already be booking their initial 'comeback' appearance on Oprah.
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