Delusions of Grandeur, mass fantasy, and the right wing

Its all the same thing. Yesterday Sarah went to Boston to give a little Tea Party speech near the site of the original event. Personally I am wondering whether she shook the dust off her feet when she left that liberal Mecca or whether it is now a sacred site of the right thanks to the election of Scott Brown (from whom much will expected....). In any case I took another thinker about the people and ideas that make up this right wing hate fest and thought I would talk about them a bit today.

Lets start with the socialism/fascism claims. I am constantly wondering where they get their evidence for this? To this day I still haven´t heard a decent argument for this, but that hasn´t stopped it being shouted from every pulpit they can find (and radio station, and fox news, etc.). I am therefore forced to conclude that these people are living in a giant bubble of fantasy. What they imagine in their head they conclude is also actually going on in the streets. This is the same affliction that many terminally ill homeless people suffer from.

Then there are the ideas about the constitution and lets go back to the constitution and it was better back then. To be honest they are practicioners of the Great American Religion. The first principle of the religion is that America is so special that it is unlike any other nation. When your worldview starts like this it invariably leads to the conclusion that all other nations are incomplete, bad, or even evil. The second principle of the religion is that the US can do nothing wrong on the world stage. The third principle is that American will only be great as long as its tied to some Randian view of capitalism and individuality. Going back to the constitution then is some kind of purification rite of the Great American Cult (cough, religion). The problem (one of many) with this view of America is that first it idealizes a kind of country that would look like The Andy Griffith Show and ignores the complicated real life that a constantly changing and dynamic nation faces. It also ignores history but that is for another post.

What I am trying to illustrate here is that the Tea Party, Fox News, and Sarah Palin are all living in a cocoon they built for themselves with a worldview that never really existed the way they wish it had. Tough shit, you lost the election, and this is the real life (its not black and white).

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