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From the time of the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts, hunting down witches in 1692 – 1693, through Glenn Beck’s rants about Progressives-Nazis, the country has been in flux politically. Our nation has gone through several bouts of irrationality, followed by corrections and then reflections on what went wrong. Although there has always been a segment of society that is less than stellar when it comes to reasonableness, they have rarely been in charge. And they have rarely held so much of the country under its sway.
During the 1920’s the Ku Klux Klan had between five and six million members with the country’s population just over a third of what it is now. They held political power in many states – especially Indiana - had the support of millions and regularly beat and lynched blacks who stood up for their rights. That was main stream at the time, but it didn’t last. During the McCarthy era paranoia was the norm in the houses of power. In the oxymoronic standard of the time, we needed to be less free in order to keep our freedom. Thankfully, that didn’t last either. At least it was dormant for a few decades. The extreme right of the John Birch Society types of the late 50’s and 1960’s, and the mean spirited McCarthy type right of the early 1950’s are now running an entire party, after recently running the country. Open bigotry has made it into media on a scale that would have been completely off limits just ten years ago. Although what Fox News and right-wing radio push is not recognized as bigotry by Fox and right-wing radio, it is bigotry none-the-less. Witness the non-stories of ACORN, the New Black Panthers and Shirley Sherrod, pushed to scare whites into thinking they are being overrun. Immigration is also hyped beyond all reason and presented in such a way as to enflame passions and preclude any meaningful conversation.
There are always bigots or people who are prone to hate and immune to logic. The difference between one era and another of course, is degrees. So, certain times stand out when the crazies rule the roost. The eras of inanity like the Salem Witch Trials, the KKK’s heyday, McCarthyism and the 21st century, always have at least two characteristics in common with each other. They are highly charged emotionally and there is a definite resistance to logic. Very traumatic experiences like the 9-11 terrorist attacks or The Great Depression move people in one or two ways. They either push people toward making a better society where the collective looks out for one another, or they push the populace into making a worse society by dividing them and stoking fear and anger.
The current war on reality didn’t start immediately after the terrorist attacks of 2001. Directly after the attacks there was a feeling of shock and a feeling of togetherness. People were more polite to each other and more helpful. But that was very short lived. Within a month there was talk was of giving up freedoms and of us versus them. Within a year just pointing out the obvious, like Iraq didn’t attack us, could lose a person friends and get one accused of being a terrorist sympathizer. From there, it wasn’t long before pointing out other obvious facts, such as, we are creating more terrorists than we are killing, or, tax cuts for the rich are going to hurt the economy, was cause for more accusations of terrorist sympathies, which has now morphed into being a communist or socialist.
During the Bush years the Christian Right was at the forefront of war on reality. They have faded in prominence, but the war is still going full force. With the same disregard for facts as a young-earther, a certain portion of society will defend torture insisting that it works, or avow that massive tax cuts increase government revenue. These people can look at a USA Today Poll that shows seventy-seven percent say they would prefer a public option in a health care bill, and insist no one wants a public option. These mostly Fox News viewers, will accuse someone of using the "Alinsky Method" when asked to site a source, and then become angry when told that source sighting is not part of the Alinsky Method. Like the word “socialism”, they have heard the term before many times, they know that it’s bad, but they don’t know what it means.
Glenn Beck has become a national figure and become very rich by pushing the most inane version of history or current events imaginable. This has pushed the crazy of the last decade and the war on reality into overdrive. His viewers are not only convinced that Hitler was a liberal, they will point a finger at those who disagree with that obvious lie and tell them they have no concept of history. Glenn beck stands next to a chalk board and acts like a teacher to his audience, telling them they are getting the “real history” now. I’d like to sugar coat this a little, but if someone can be convinced that Hitler was a liberal, or that FDR caused the Great depression, they aren’t really well informed about anything to begin with. He shouts absolute nonsense, tying together art from the 30’s with Obama’s “Nazi agenda” and his audience carries those ridiculous notions with them into their places of work and into the voting booth. It is not by accident that Beck has attacked empathy and social justice. Coupled with his distortion of history and current events, it makes his followers perfect solders in the war on reality – and it keeps the crazy going full force.
It has been close to nine years of this current incarnation of delusional politics and there is no sign of slowing down. We need to call out the resistance to logic and correct those who parrot irrational talking points. Otherwise, we will never be able to have the much needed discussions about how to fix what is broken, and get us to the point of corrections - and reflect about what went wrong.
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