A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 39

I just learned of a new book by Claire Conner called Wrapped in the Flag.  Ms. Conner is the daughter of two reactionary parents who were dyed in the wool John Birch Society members.  An excerpt is available on Google Books.  Even in the brief excerpt you get an idea of the almost religious fervor these people have and how they see enemies and conspiracies everywhere.

The Republican Party has always been the vehicle for the reactionary right to promote its ideology and, worse, to attempt to pass legislation based on that ideology.  At one point the John Birch Society was too extreme for the Republican Party and the party tried to distance itself.  But in recent years we have a reincarnation of the Birch Society in the form of the Tea Party.

Members of the Tea Party, like their John Birch forebears, see conspiracies everywhere.  Now, instead of Communism, the boogeyman is radical Islam.  They accuse President Obama of being a Muslim dedicated to the subversion and overthrow of Judeo-Christian principles.  They call Obama a Marxist, a reversion to the old zealotry of anti-Communism.  They deny the existence of global warming and want to impose their idea of Christianity on everyone else.  They speak of "freedom," but don't see the contradictions in their own ideology.

More to come