For months David Frum has been outspoken when it comes to denouncing the craziness on the right. Here is part of an article in today’s L.A. Times:
They are “wild accusations and the paranoid delusions coming from the fever swamps,” said David Frum, a conservative author and speechwriter for President George W. Bush who is among the more vocal critics of the party base and of the conservative talk show hosts helping to fan the unrest.
“Like all conservatives, I am concerned about this administration’s accumulation of economic power,” Frum said. “Still, you have to be aware that there’s a line where legitimate concerns begin to collapse into paranoid fantasy.”
The article goes on to say that even more conservatives are becoming vocal on the issue. We saw this last week when Newt Gingrich came out defending President Obama’s speech to school children.
But the article goes on to talk about something I didn’t know – a possible coalition between the RNC and WorldNetDaily:
Some are pressuring the Republican National Committee and other mainstream GOP groups to cut ties with WorldNetDaily.com, which reports some of the allegations. Its articles are cited by websites and pundits on the right. More than any other group, critics say, WorldNetDaily sets the conservative fringe agenda.
Critics charge that the RNC has paid WorldNetDaily for access to its mailing list, estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands, and that the RNC is therefore subsidizing the website’s anti-Obama writings.
RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho did not respond to questions on the matter.
Could you imagine the outcry if the DNC gave its mailing list to a group like MoveOn? It would be a death blow to the Democratic Party.
The article does echo a sentiment I have heard from numerous longtime Republicans. They feel like the days of common sense and sanity are coming to an end, and a lot blame people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who really don’t care that much about the Republicans as they do their ratings.
Of course all of this is to be expected. When the Democrats became a very small minority in the early 2000s, it seemed like we became a party of truthers. Those of us who were Democrats and didn’t accept the whole “9/11 was an inside job” crazy talk didn’t associate with them. The Democrats did something though that the Republicans are failing to – they distanced themselves from the craziness. The Republicans are embracing it, and if somehow this craziness spreads into giving the GOP a majority then the future of our nation is very dark indeed.