It's Serious

I take the right wing crazies seriously around here, and I have to count myself among those who are getting a little anxious about the apparent Obama administration attitude towards them.

Two things this weekend, for instance: the Secretary of Education repeating the same language concerning the Rabid Right's latest truly rabid insanity: their blatant Big Lying and frothing at the mouth over the President of the United States talking to school kids about the importance of education. The Secretary of Ed said it's "silly," just as Press Secretary Smilin' Bob Gibbs called it "silly season." Silly is an attempt to deflate it with mild ridicule, and I've been waiting for that to work--because the Obama people went against conventional wisdom on this sort of stuff during the campaign and turned out to be right. But if they don't believe this stuff is really dangerous, then I am worried. You can dismiss it in public, although I don't think that's a good strategy any longer, but I really hope they aren't in fact dismissing it.

The other event was the resignation of Van Jones, the green energy advisor. The Beltway folks are either cynical or approving--he was in their eyes a minor guy whose past political indiscretions were going to stay a story and take up attention from health care and Climate Crisis legislation, etc. But it's a lot worse that that. First of all, it's a victory for that vicious scum, Glenn Beck. I have compassion for Beck, he's a troubled guy who evidently couldn't get jobs as an actor and has settled for selling Big Lies and hate. But he needs treatment, not encouragement, and certainly not power.

He went after Jones, and he evidently got him--inspiring Huff Post to its own racist headline to the effect that Jones was his "first scalp." And it's going to be blood in the water for Beck--he's going to McCarthy his way up the White House staff. Beck gets away with this--while the White House claims nobody there watches him--as he gets away with his own repeated blatant hate speech and racism.

This has inspired some pretty acid comments from those who support Obama on many issues, like digby here:

I would hope that these leftist extremists like Color of Change will think twice before they go after an upstanding company like FOX News because the lesson here is that somebody is going to pay a big price for doing it. In fact, it probably would pay to keep a close eye on the FOX gasbags from now on to get an idea of which groups or individuals have offended the network and get rid of them before anyone has a chance to make a public stink. It would save everyone a lot of time and trouble.

Color of Change is an organization that Jones founded, and since it has led the pretty successful campaign to deny advertisers to Beck due to his expressed racism, Beck went after Jones (no longer actually associated with them, at least until today.)

Second, it's not very comforting to see the White House abandon Jones, a talented and charismatic guy, a bridge between non-white communities and the all-too-white environmentalists. Just on the basis of loyalty, of standing up, it doesn't feel right. Brian L at Calitics quotes Baratude:

I'm heartbroken over Van's departure because it's these little meaningless concessions that undermine people's faith in the system. You get folks all riled up about change. You empower a man who embodies that change. And they you let him be run out of office by fucking Glenn Beck? So Glenn Beck is running the White House now? Is that how it's gonna be? Just tell me that I knocked on all those doors for nothing, and I can start the grieving process, but don't pretend this will solve anything.

** *** *** How do you expect folks to continue to go to the mat for your agenda, when you so easily sacrifice our best and brightest at the whim of an illegitimate lynch mob? How do you expect the next generation to invest themselves in the political process when they see that despite their good works, they can be taken out over nonsense, especially when the double standard is so abundantly clear? How can you ask from us what you won't do for us? And when will you realize that you cannot negotiate with terrorists?"

I know that from a White House perspective you have to deal in acceptable losses sometimes, but if the Obama Administration is going to cede ground to the Rabid Right they're just going to get more and more vicious. They may end up consuming themselves, but by that time we may not have much left to build a future with.

Bill Moyers has taken this temperature as well:

The editors of THE ECONOMIST magazine say America's health care debate has become a touch delirious, with people accusing each other of being evil-mongers, dealers in death, and un-American. Well, that's charitable. I would say it's more deranged than delirious, and definitely not un-American.

Those crackpots on the right praying for Obama to die and be sent to hell — they're the warp and woof of home-grown nuttiness. So is the creature from the Second Amendment who showed up at the President's rally armed to the teeth... Bill Maher asked me on his show last week if America is still a great nation. I should've said it's the greatest show on earth. Forget what you learned in civics about the Founding Fathers — we're the children of Barnum and Bailey, our founding con-men. Their freak show was the forerunner of today's talk radio.

Speaking of which: we've posted on our website an essay by the media scholar Henry Giroux. He describes the growing domination of hate radio as one of the crucial elements in a "culture of cruelty" increasingly marked by overt racism, hostility and disdain for others, coupled with a simmering threat of mob violence toward any political figure who believes health care reform is the most vital of safety nets, especially now that the central issue of life and politics is no longer about working to get ahead, but struggling simply to survive."

Moyers writes this in the context of a letter to President Obama, and pleads: "Come on, Mr. President. Show us America is more than a circus or a market. Remind us of our greatness as a democracy."

To do so he may have to do more than gently chide or dismiss this wave of hate and distortion. He may have to name it, and oppose it. And stand with those who stand with him for a better future.