re: #524 Boondock St. Bender

I think the point,(i may be wrong though )is that we expected better out of those who until recently we could have considered on our side.ranting and arm waving may provide a ratings boost,but,reasoned intelligent arguements win those open to conversion

We should have expected better. On that there is no doubt. At the same time, it’s hard to argue with what works. Inflated rhetoric and mob action allowed a very small sliver of the radical left to gain power far beyond their meager numbers. Their ability to get air time, to silence opposition, to get otherwise “centrist” political candidates to dance to their tune, to control schools, to have access to every possible media venue (with the possible exception of short wave) to promote their views — there are many on the right who saw this and said to themselves “so this is how it’s done.”

Moreover, just as happened when the left had a collective (slight stab at political humor) aneurysm over the election of McChimpy Hitlerburton and the subsequent “war against oppressed people in the third world that don’t look like us”, fringe groups that had been half asleep for the previous thirty years took full advantage of the situation. In a similar way, wacko groups on the far right have been waiting for their opportunity, and the current political climate has offered an opportunity for them to come into the clear. And just like the insane clown posse we saw in Zombie’s periodic reports, the nut cases on the far right took for their own arguably legitimate political concerns, but then larded them with their own aims and goals.

In both cases, the ultimate goals was to create disillusion with the existing political structure. The real enemy of the far left, as we often say, were the more reasonable members of the Democrat party. Likewise, the far right has its sights set on any conservatives who don’t toe their line.

One difference that, at least to my mind, seems significat. I doubt we’ll see Joe Wilson or any of his supporters inflating their scrotum in protest.