Capt. Fogg and right-wing insanity

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Our assistant editor and co-blogger Capt. Fogg will be away for the next week and a half or so and will not be posting during that time.

As fans of his know, not to mention the various trolls who engage with him at their peril, one of his truly favourite things to do, and he does it often here at The Reaction, is to expose right-wing insanity in all its horrendous and destructive glory. And so I think he would like this piece on the fucked up insanity at the Eagle Forum's "How to Take Back America" conference, by The Washington Independent's David Weigel:

The "How to Take Back America" conference was no place for soft critiques of the Obama administration. It was a weekend of speeches and training sessions that were laden with doom, cries of mounting fascism, and long prayers for salvation. It was the kind of event where [Phyllis] Schlafly, a conservative icon who's often seen as a leader of the movement's far right flank, could take the role of a pragmatist, sticking to the sort of criticism of the Obama administration that might appear on Fox News and asking activists to elect a Republican Congress in 2010. And Schlafly succeeded in bringing big Republican stars to the conference. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) was the biggest draw, but six members of Congress attended, too – Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), and Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.). Several 2010 Republican candidates hosted workshops, including Ed Martin and Vicky Hartzler, both running for Democratic-held U.S. House seats in Missouri. But some of the rhetoric went beyond partisan politics. At worst, the speakers argued, fascism was on the horizon. At best, this was a pivotal time in a war on Christian values. Some of the speakers split the difference.

These are certainly stars on the far right, but, increasingly, they stand for a huge chunk of the Republican Party. It would be easy to write off a conference of grotesque fearmongering, with the explicit message that Obama is just like Hitler, as irrelevant nonsense, but, however nonsensical it may have been, it was certainly not irrelevant -- not given what has become of conservatism in America, with its tea parties and lies and reckless smear campaigns, all of which could induce violence, if it hasn't already. (Is the point to warn the country that Obama is a fascist... or a socialist... or whatever the smear of the day is... in order to win elections... or is it to stir up violent opposition to Obama, all that he supports, and all that supports him? Or is it both? Because if it's the former, it's also, whether these manipulators like it or not, the latter as well.)

But where is the Republican/conservative outrage? Why aren't Republicans/conservatives coming out against this madness? Why aren't the sane ones, however many are left, trying to take back their party and their movement? I suppose some are, and yet the bloodthirsty vitriol continues to spew forth all across the land, on Fox News and in right-wing op-eds, at town-hall meeting and at extremist ideological havens like the Eagle Forum. It is reckless, it is irresponsible, it is disgusting, and it is deeply, deeply alarming.