The far right doesn't like Mitt Romney, at all. That presents them with a problem, since he's the GOP candidate and despite their misgivings they still want him to win.
How to motivate all those conservative voters to show up at the polls for such an uninspiring candidate?
The answer is always the same: create a cycle of irrational hysteria. Trust in terror to get them to the polls. The GOP are masters at that. Call it the theater of the not-at-all-oppressed.
It goes like this: they're coming for you. They're coming for your guns, wives, bibles, children, faith, fried chicken, freedom.
It doesn't matter who THEY are. They're a Russian doll of liberal avatars. They will never be a shortage of THEM.
But it's hard to maintain all that bed-wetting terror year after year, just ask Stephen King. You can run out of tricks. That's why in each election cycle the GOP theatre-makers have to top themselves to create a new level of threat.
This year they have succeeded to the point where they have apparently fallen for their own fables. Or at least, that's the impression any sensible person gets when wading through the paranoid and increasingly irresponsible articles they're publishing online to terrify their owns ranks into voting.
What are the far right afraid of this election season?
Well, in no particular order, Sharia law, the confiscation of their firearms, President Obama's Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to turn Washington DC into Baghdad, the ACLU's plan to ban the Bible, Hilary Clinton's plan to force America's womenfolk into burqas, the gay marriage thugs manifesto to pilfer your husbands and redecorate your homes, Nancy Pelosi's Drive-thru abortion clinic plan, non-white people's plans to become your neighbors, Mexico's nefarious plan to repatriate the entire country in Arizona, big media's plan to sell socialism to the suburbs, and on and on.
I'm not exaggerating. This week Breitbart.com, that Tea Party oasis, claimed that President Obama's administration is paving the way for Sharia law in the United States.
'The most terrifying danger Americans face from a second Barack Obama term isn’t the economy, which is scary enough…Now there is strong and open evidence of the Obama administration collaborating with Islamist activists to ensure the path toward sharia law is accelerated.'
It must have been how-stupid-can-we-be night over at Breitbart. But this kind of spurious nonsense finds traction among the paranoid and the fearful.
Only one man can save the nation's Anglo Saxon heritage from Obamageddon, of course. You know who he is. It's a measure of how desperate the GOP and Tea Party rank and file have become now that they have to frame their political opposition with such blatantly racist dog whistles.
Before you think it's just the Muslim-bashers who fear for the future, check out another old reliable on 24/7 terror alert.
Just three days after the Aurora, Colorado shooting the National Rifle Association (NRA) sent out a mass mailing that claimed President Obama's re-election will lead to the 'confiscation of our firearms.'
Cue freakout.
Signed by NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, the letter claimed the 'future of your Second Amendment rights will be at stake… And nothing less than the future of our country and our freedom will be at stake.'
Talk about a case of the vapors. It's as infuriating as it is mendacious.The truth is crazy people keep getting the guns, they have unrestricted access to tons of them in fact.
All of this might be funny, after a fashion, if it weren't for the eye-popping comments made by Tea Party supporters on FreeRepublic.com, another far right watering hole, where reactions to the bogus Sharia story included:
'There is no reason that Obama should not support Sharia Law. Considering he is a Muslim. His father was one and it is passed on to his son whether he likes it or not. This is a club that you can’t resign from, because the penalty is death.'
Another wrote:'There is strong evidence that he and Hillary are working with the Muslim Brotherhood…'
"I am far more afraid of the Muzzies than any Latino illegal,' wrote another.
It went on like this, fallacy after paranoid fallacy. They are coming. They want our guns, gods, gold and garters.
Fed on a diet of freak-out, can we claim to be surprised if delusional far right us-or-them types pick up their rifle to fire the first shot? Everywhere they look they are being told their world is under threat of extinction.
Conservatives call themselves the true patriots of real America. They scoff at everyone else. But do true patriots rip apart the fabric of the nation just to win an election?
On November 6 you can be judge.
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