extremism

We start with a small story right here at Next Right about how Obama didn't let reporters in to cover a basketball game, but instead sent out a slick media package.  Not long into it, we get the phrase "Ministry of Propaganda." 

Sigh.

And we wonder why conservatives are failing to break through with a broader audience.  It has far less to do with principles, pork, transparency or any of that and a whole lot more to do with how the mainstream conservative media treats everything Obama does as heralding the rise of some sort of Communist/Fascist state. 

We saw Americans speaking up for sanity at tea parties.  Everyone else saw signs with Obama wearing a Hitler mustache or photoshopped in with hammers and sickles.  If that isn't an invitation for an undecided voter to tune out the voices behind the signs, I don't know what is.  You and I know that the people with the nutty signs were a few bad apple Freepers, Ron Paulists and throwback Birchers, but way too much of this paranoid style has seeped into places like National Review and even this site to a lesser extent.

The chicken-littleification of the GOP is a huge roadblock to winning elections.  People see Obama, whatever the policy differences, as an even-tempered guy, not some aspiring tinpot dictator or deluded campus radical.  That impression will not be successfully countered by being louder and making more extreme claims.  There is a big difference between saying that a policy will have serious bad outcomes and that it will lead to the destruction of everything we hold dear.  First of all, people will listen to you if you claim the former.

Let's try some guidelines.

Helpful:

- Obama will reduce available healthcare choices;

- Obama's budget plans have very serious long term consequences for the American economy and our ability to pay for entitlements to which citizens have grown accustomed;

- Obama's open-borders immigration policy depresses wages, increases the possibility of terrorist infiltration and makes a mockery of the notion that we are a nation of laws;

- Obama's national security policies make us less safe and give more free reign to governments hostile to America while decreasing the ability of our intelligence agencies to do their vital work.

Not Helpful:

- The One's lapdog sycophants in the Obamedia are unwilling to investigate his deep connections to Weather Underground terrorist radicals.

- Show us the birth certificate!

- Closing Guantanamo means freeing terrorists in our neighborhood. (as if they were going to get an apartment next door).

- "These events have heralded a new era of partnership between the White House and private companies, one that calls to mind the wonderful partnership Germany formed with France and the Low Countries at the start of World War II." (from David Brooks of all places).

- It is time to send him and his lazy supporters who steal from the people who work and give to the people who don't work, back to their home state or maybe send them to Iran to lived...make sure Al Gore is with them. (Also from Next Right)

Conservatives are smarter than this!

Inappropriate Humor Alert...

Tea Party protesters won a victory today as the mainstream media could not ignore their protests like they have in the past. As expected some of the media described the protesters as radicals (ever-classy and most-trusted Anderson Cooper of CNN used an obscene joke to describe the attendees) despite the pictures showing peaceful gatherings of people of all ages in attendance. Yet media logic dictates if you don't love Obama, you must be crazy. Yet it's not just the media searching for crazy. A report was leaked by DHS on "Rightwing Extremism." To quote the report,

Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures.

Dang it, I'm a radical. There were signs, once in high school I got a detention for a overdue library book; even back then I was bad. My internet chatter about obscene government spending has all been a clever ploy to manipulate my readers to take radical action like, 'vote the bums out,' or 'tell your representatives what you think.' I tell you I'm bad, and if I didn't have a job or a cold I would have been one of those crazy tea party animals too. You need further proof that I'm a radical? How about this...

Rightwing extremist views bemoan the decline of U.S. stature and have recently focused on themes such as the loss of U.S. manufacturing capability to China and India, Russia’s control of energy resources and use of these to pressure other countries, and China’s investment in U.S. real estate and corporations as a part of subversion strategy.

Well there you have it. I'm concerned that China owns us, and all our debt, I must be a radical. Granted, I'm a centrist on guns and immigration, and lean a bit left on the social issues discussed in the report, but imagine my surprise to find out that I've been cavorting with other radicals over the past 2 years by volunteering for the McCain campaign. Pro-life, pro-second amendment, high concentration of veterans, don't let the good humor, sarcastic wit, family values, and helpful manner fool you - we were all a big bunch of radicals, just ask MSNBC.

Now I know there is a serious side to this report. Every group in every country has its nutballs, and its the government's main job to protect its citizens from radicals of all sorts. Yet this seems like a veiled attempt to blur the line between staunch conservatives and radical Klan-like groups, when in reality that is a very clear and distict line. Veterans in particular are owed an apology for their less than flattering portrayal in this report. As for me, I'm going to keep chattering about the economy, and take pride in the fact that someone out there thinks I'm radical.

You Could Be A Radical Too...