UPDATE: Frank Rich asks if someone on the Right will step forward to repudiate the far-rights incendiary rhetoric. I would argue that they do so very much at their own peril, as any criticism of the nutjob wing would be career suicide. First of all, it would take a harsh rebuke for it to really take hold. Second, with even Republicans not really sure who leads their party, it would probably take more than one voice to go anywhere in drowning out the demented chorus. But if there is one politician the right-wingers are truly passionate and united about, it’s Sarah Palin. She is inexorably tied to a large segment of the wingnut nation.
So there’s your answer, Frank Rich: Sarah Palin must come out against the craziness. Of course, this is going to be difficult as she is touring the nation lying about David Letterman for sympathy, in a repeat of the stupid “lipstick on a pig” scandal from the election.
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There’s a great article in HuffPo today from Michael Rowe about the venom coming out of right-wing media.
Additionally, Rush Limbaugh and others on the right are calling for Fox News’ Shepard Smith to be fired for suggesting Janet Napolitano may have been correct in her DHS report warning of right-wing domestic terrorists.
I’m sure somebody has mentioned this before, but it occurs to me that a lot of the garbage that comes from the likes of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Limbaugh is nothing more than a sort of gruel that they feed their listeners and viewers. First and foremost, the job of these men is to get ratings and generate money, and they don’t get ratings without telling their clientele what they want to hear.
Therefore, reacting to news such as James Von Brunn’s Holocaust Museum murder by bizarrely claiming the Buchanan/Ron Paul-esqe far-right nativist was somehow a left-winger is par for the course.
Since there is such a high bar of delusion set by the kings of the cartel, those who don’t fall into lockstep with the drivel are cast away. Being reasonable is not an option, because any who attempt a measured, thoughtful response that differs from cartel will find themselves cut off, their livelihood in ruins. In the Right-Wing Industrial Complex, reasonableness is bad for business.
This is why such obvious idiocy is so common in these circles. It’s merely a commodity designed to appeal to a hungry, fervent consumer. What Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity say doesn’t mean anything, they’re just hucksters selling their particular ware.
It’s all about the money, because as Fox News has shown, there is lot to be made off these people.
But the money-trail isn’t just about getting advertising dollars: the far-right fringe of the party is also responsible for a large percentage of contributions to campaigns, PACs, and other organizations that in turn use those dollars to affect change in Washington and around the country. In order to get this money, supposedly mainstream Republican politicians have to buy into the venomous rhetoric to maintain power and get elected.
A fringe group of greedy nuts making up hateful things is bad enough, but the kow-towing that goes on to wealthy far-right donors by Republicans ends up becoming America’s problem. They don’t give their money up without concessions. The fact that Republicans are forced to apologize for criticizing Rush Limbaugh is all the evidence we need to see that honest criticism on the right-wing FROM the right-wing is suicidal.
No nutty, no money.