I'm finding this all a tad scary. I don't know whether to put it down to the last throes of madness as the American Empire falls into decline, or whether it is just the continuation of the paranoia that has always haunted the fringes of American society. McCarthy didn't happen in a vacuum; you have to have the right soil there in the first place for the seeds of bonkers-ness to germinate.
There is a very interesting article on the website
Democracy Now! where Max Blumenthal talks about his book
"Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party"
Quote:
Fifty years ago, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower issued a warning against the rise of extremist movements within his own party. During his presidency, Eisenhower had endured attacks by Senator Joseph McCarthy, the radical right John Birch Society and others. In a 1959 letter to a World War II veteran, Eisenhower wrote, quote, “Many prominent officials, possessing no standing or expertness as they themselves claim it, attempt to further their own ideas or interests by resorting to statements more distinguished by stridency than by accuracy.”
Half a century later, in a summer of town hall disruptions and birth certificate controversies, what Eisenhower had warned against has come true: that the Republican Party has been captured by its extremist wing.
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The problem with these people is they are clearly nuts, they are angry, they have guns, and they have the likes of Limbaugh lighting the blue touch-paper and stepping back.
I don't know whether to point and laugh, or to advise you all to build a shelter and start stock-piling canned goods and bottled water....
