Avlon: The Obama Haters Book Club: The Canon Swells
Jon Avlon has a piece at The Daily Beast on the sick and twisted world of the right wing Obama Haters Book Club, where fear mongering and deranged conspiracy theories are a thriving business.
Welcome to the Obama Haters Book Club—a parallel universe of fear mongering for fun and profit.
Over the past four years, no less than 89 obsessively anti-Obama books have been published, as now catalogued by The Daily Beast. I’m not talking about cool statements of policy difference, but overheated and often unhinged screeds painting a picture of the president as a dangerous radical hell-bent on undermining the Republic by any means necessary. It is hate and hyper-partisan paranoia masquerading as high-minded patriotism.
Here’s the worst part—this steady drumbeat of incitement is having an impact on this presidential election because it has poisoned the well of civic discourse for many voters and those in their radius of damage. It has helped divide the nation beyond reason, distorting the president’s real record beyond all recognition.
By their very nature, books offer the promise of education and enlightenment. These conspiracy entrepreneurs pray on the prejudices of their audience. This is high-priced hardcover bile, boasting titles like:
The Communist; The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration; Where�s the Birth Certificate?; The Manchurian President: Barack Obama�s Ties to Communists, Socialists and other Anti-American Extremists; The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama�s War on the Republic; Trickle Down Tyranny: Crushing Obama�s Dream of the Social States of America; Gangster Government: Barack Obama and the New Washington Thugocracy; How Obama Embraces Islam�s Sharia Agenda; The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration�s War on America; To Save America: Stopping Obama�s Secular Socialist Machine; The Blueprint: Obama�s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency; and what is still my personal favorite title: Whiny Little Bitch: The Excuse Filled Presidency of Barack Obama.