When I first started studying politics in the 1980s, the radical right did most of its business under radar.<\/p>\n
Extreme conservatives — and I’ll define that term in a minute — winked and nudged at their agenda when talking to mainstream reporters and rank-and-file voters.<\/p>\n
They saved their vitriol and poison for more private channels of communication: backwoods rallies, mimeographed newsletters, and the still-unnoticed world of AM talk radio.<\/p>\n
But these days, the hounds of hate are unleashed and they’ve gone mainstream.<\/p>\n
Rush Limbaugh is a broadcast powerhouse; and Glenn Beck is one of the most listened to men in media. <\/p>\n
The likes of Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and Michelle Malkin are top-bill pundits and entertainers.<\/p>\n
Prominent RedState blogger Erick Erickson once called Supreme Court Justice David Souter a “goat-f%@*ing child molester” and blasted Michelle Obama as a “Marxist harpy wife.” <\/p>\n
Now CNN has hired him to sit on one of its regular talk show panels. Doesn’t get much more mainstream than that.<\/p>\n
But while their audiences have gotten bigger, the crazy viciousness has stayed just as toxic.<\/p>\n
On Rush Limbaugh’s program yesterday, he repeatedly aired a snippet of tape of a young black man, apparently crowing over all the free goodies he’s about to get from the health care bill.<\/p>\n
The message was clear: <\/p>\n
Health care reform is a give-away for Americans — especially Americans of color — too lazy to take care of their own needs. <\/p>\n
As I’ve written here before, there are plenty of things to argue about and condemn in this health reform plan. <\/p>\n
But the idea that it targets poor black people with its aid is a plain and simple lie.<\/p>\n
Programs already exist to help most poor and unemployed people get basic health care. <\/p>\n
This legislation is aimed primarily at the growing number of America’s working families that can’t afford health insurance. <\/p>\n
The vast majority of the people who benefit will be required to pay substantially for their own private insurance coverage. (They may receive government subsidies.)<\/p>\n
So here’s my working definition of an extremist conservative.<\/p>\n
It is someone who is so radicalized that they are willing to lie about the actual and provable facts of a debate, in order to sway public opinion.<\/p>\n
What’s more, they are willing to embrace racist, Willie Horton-style tactics in order to mobilize their followers.<\/p>\n
I’m convinced that the institution suffering the most from this nastiness is the Republican Party itself. <\/p>\n
For the second time this week, I want to quote former Bush speechwriter David Frum, who put it succinctly:<\/p>\n
[The GOP] followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.<\/p>\n
There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. <\/p>\n
Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. <\/p>\n
How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? <\/p>\n
Or \u2013 more exactly \u2013 with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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