Should the stuff these people are saying just be just laughed off or should it be worrying? I'm not sure. Some describe it as the Conservative movement's implosion, but I'm not so sure of that. If we were living in a time of relative economic stability, I'd be less bothered by CPAC antics.
As long as Obama's popularity remains high, it poses no threat, and If Obama is perceived by most Americans to be succeeding, the kind of craziness we've witnessed this week will be pushed to the periphery. But it's clear these people want Obama to fail, that they believe his success will be the destruction of America as they conceive of it, and they will do everything they can to make him fail. And it's clear to me that if Obama does fail, the kind of turmoil such a failure will thrust the country into will make the CPAC message very attractive to ill-informed and desperate Americans. This kind of insanity in one form or another might very well be our future.
P.S. I know this Hannity poll has gotten a lot of exposure, but I
just want to post it here for the record so I can find it easily. But
the very fact that a mainstream media personality can put something
like this up tells us how surreal things have become.
But one thing I hope Republican moderates who might occasionally read this blog can agree with me about now is that this kind of right wing nonsense cannot be taken seriously on it merits. There is no merit in it. It is a manifestation of a social-psychological disease. It has more in common with substance abuse and joining a religious cult than it has with people with whom one has honest political difference of opinion. Fully a third of the country is in this state of collective insanity to some degree, and if the economy continues to go south and Obama is blamed for it, there will be a lot more swelling their ranks.
Relative calm and sanity in the country during the last forty years has correlated with economic stability. Once that factor is removed, anything goes.
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