The question we should be asking and answering is..Is their hatred contagious

[Bandit]

Will more people be attracted to their cause because of their demonstrations? Are Americans more prone to be drawn toward such displays of hatred and bigotry than repulsed by them? They at least put themselves on the line and declared who they are and how they feel. Do they have drawing power or are they nothing but a flash in the pan? Limbaugh and Hannity and now Beck have done extremely well over the years pushing their hatred. Will this hatred now go viral or is there still enough sanity left in America to sideline these characters? I am beginning to have real doubts....

[rucky]

1. They have almost all the elements of a mainstream movement.

Organization. Media support. Money backing. But they're missing one thing: A clear direction.

Without an alternative to whatever it is they're protesting, they'll continue to shout at the sky.

[T Wolf]

2. I believe so because as people see the hatred from the pukes and the reich broadcast in

the media and not widely condemned, see the Dems not fight back as strongly as they could, the hate will come to be accepted as valid and appropriate.

Bullies do not respond to peaceful overtures. They only respond to an aggressive force stronger than their own.

[Echo In Light]

3. There was a more significant, deep reaction of legitimate fear re Bush from a larger %

It's set up an interesting comparison: those who wisely realized that something was VERY wrong w/the whole Bush/Cheney/PNAC thing from the get-go reacted, but while a smaller % of that broad portion of the populace took to writing/blogging/making doc films, etc, the larger portion were terrified at the prospect of what was taking place.

Conversely, these RWers are the same reactionaries who've always been around....hated the Counter Culture, loved Reagan's decade of greed, hated Clinton once their emotional fuel had no specific target after the collapse of the Soviets/Cold War...and on and on. If you removed the Right's need to have an enemy to hate and attack, there'd be no movement remaining. Which is to say, they're easily counted upon by vested interests.

[ShortnFiery]

4. It gets our "less than stellar" democratic representatives off the hook too because

they end up doing NOTHING.

It's a WIN-WIN for Wall Street and the power elite who actually run this country. :shrug:

[Historic NY]

5. When Republican members of the US Senate embraced them & host them ...

by speaking to them the hate grows. The more attention they get the more legitimate they believe they are.

[OHdem10]

6. The New Face of America::???????

[emulatorloo]

7. Did the John Birch Society gain widespread acceptance in the 60's and 70's?

This is a similar fringe movement.

The only difference is that the media seems to want to give this group lots and lots of coverage. So that makes things a little iffy I guess.

My hunch is that more and more exposure is going to show most sane people what they really are.

[shraby]

8. Mr Shraby doesn't usually pay much attention to politics but

this certainly turned him off. He doesn't like the hatred and said it's pretty dangerous.

[old mark]

9. GOPers have been like this for as long as I can remember, and before -

They attacked FDR,Truman,JFK,LBJ,Carter, certainly got after the Clintons...this is what they do and who they are. Once the few "moderates" were eliminated, what you have left is the hate filled demagogues and minor league Hitlers we see so much of - they just seem louder because of TV and the internet.

FWIW, I have hated them since I was in grade school in the 1950's, and see no reason to change.

mark