An Electorate Misled by Radical, Dull-witted Elements is a Profoundly Worrying National Condition

Life in the slow-witted lane should be the new motto for right-wing media types and ultra-conservative pols in Congress. Fair and balanced doesn't describe what goes on at Fox News where intelligent discourse isn't part of the harangues that fill its air time, nor does it animate conservatives' talking points on Capitol Hill. Old uninspiring fall-back positions suggest that Republicans need an intra-party stimulus program.

In a bizarre, non-political chat on Fox, wrestler Hulk Hogan's fulminations about his divorce were the topic. His ugly divorce caused him, he has said, to empathize with OJ Simpson - - a deplorable outburst said one guest. But the host and another guest said they could understand and sympathize with the rage OJ must have felt when he found Nicole's "19-year-old boyfriend" at her house. Such assumptions require an oh-well attitude about what happened that night in California and acceptance of the non-fact that Ron Goldman was Nicole's boyfriend. But I guess there's a kind of lunatic balance in the exchange.

On the political front, when a government report suggested home-grown, right-wing extremists might commit acts of violence, conservative apologists said the report was an attempt to stifle debate.  No-one was angrier than Sean Hannity who, with that bright-eyed maniacal gaze of his queried, "what about William Ayers and Reverend Wright"- - talk about beating a dead horse. And for one terrible moment I had a mental picture of Hannity actually beating a dead horse in real time.

Of course Hannity and others on the right willingly ignored how Quaker and other peace advocacy groups were infiltrated by government officials during the Bush years. Tagged for what were deemed ‘leftist' proclivities such groups received special attention. To speak out against the invasion of Iraq, well that was tantamount to treason viewed through the haze of paranoia that enveloped the Bush White House. Did those scary Quakers and peaceniks actually pose a real threat to the republic?

And in the surreal world of Fox News there was indignation, after April 15^th, about criticisms by other news organizations regarding the tea-bag demonstrations. In a conversation between Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteran she talked about "the real people" who expressed their views on tea-bag day and were accosted by "vulgar, rookie" reporters from other news groups, while he wrote off CNN and MSNBC as if they were just fly-speck nonentities. But, as has been noted elsewhere, Fox News made itself the story instead of just reporting it. That's what happens when commentators morph into special-event sponsors. The largest groups on tax day were the ones attending gatherings cheer-led by Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity et al. What could be more vulgar than that?

Were organizers really pleased with the behavior of their groupies? What kinds of people raise large posters of Hitler and Mussolini to imply Obama's is a fascist regime, or ask "what country do you really come from?" questioning his place of birth. Where did all these disruptive, hate-filled poster people come from? They aren't about constructive alternatives; they just want to have their way about abortion, guns, taxes and government that doesn't interfere except to impose a narrow set of ‘values' on the general population - -  in short the conservative Republican way.

The crowd seemed to enjoy publicly expressing outrage over the state of the economy, government spending, job losses, and, oh yes, fear that the president will take their guns away. But they aren't the only ones who are angry; a lot of "real people" resent that, at a time when we should be strengthening the national "ties that bind", a politically-motivated, media-promoted event was what happened instead. However organizers spin it, this was a divisive exercise that simply fed the anxiety of a nervous public in need of reassurance and a sincere political work ethic. And why the wasteful truckload of a million tea-bags in D.C. - - was it an ironic reference to the "million-man march" or was choosing that precise number of no particular significance?

In the face of so many pressing problems, an electorate misled by radical, dull-witted elements is a profoundly worrying national condition. To put that in perspective, consider the consequences of a person like Minnesota Congresswoman, Republican Michele Bachmann, one of the country's leading purveyors of misinformation, home-schooling  her five children - - just one of many alarming indications that cultivating an enlightened American public is a more daunting task than we might have imagined.