Start the revolution without me

A hypothetical question for all of you: Is it possible to gain respect from the public at large by acting like unhinged crybabies? Or by expressing oneself in the nastiest, most immature ways possible?

The past week has been quite an embarrassing one for the conservative movement. Sure, the single-payer approach to health care is stuck in development hell as we speak, which must bring shrieks of delight to the lunatic fringe of American politics. But let's face facts, these people are really acting like a bunch of whiny assholes.

All summer long, the fringe element of the ideological spectrum has been creeping further into the mainstream, in effect plastering the conservative movement with their own brand of extremist, racist, nonsensical and ill-informed rhetoric. We've seen it in the various "tea parties" that have taken place, along with their ridiculous protest signs. We've seen town hall gatherings, where the unhinged fringe assumed that yelling louder makes their points more truthful. We've seen the ridiculous source where they get their 'news' - FOX. And we've seen it in their choices of false idols, guys like Glenn Beck.

Then things started getting ugly. Really ugly. A Baptist minister in Arizona called for his parishioners to pray for Obama's death. An accountant in North Carolina just lost his CPA license for telling diners in a Waffle House restaurant that he planned to make that prayer a reality. Then, add in all those ridiculous things right-wingers are accusing our president of, and no wonder why people are starting to lose their shit.

This past weekend, a speaker at the How To Take Back America conference, conservative speaker Kitty Werthmann shouted from the stage, accusing Obama of being both a Marxist and a Nazi, all in plain view of attendees like GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who also went off on his own insane tirade.

And this crude behavior has even creeped into the halls of Congress. Rep. Joe Wilson rudely called Obama a 'liar' during a speech before a joint session. Rep. Trent Franks referred to our president as "an enemy of humanity" at a rally, mere days after demanding to see his birth certificate. And of course there's everybody's favorite right-wing lunatic, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who has been trying to make things like the census seem like Obama's latest attempt to mind-meld with us (wonder what she thought of the Patriot Act?).

Last week, the social networking site Facebook was stung by a third-party application poll asking whether President Obama should be assassinated. Yeah, real classy.

And it gets uglier. A columnist with widely-read conservative opinion site Newsmax has gone so far as to call for an armed military insurrection to help take care of what he calls the "Obama Problem". John L. Perry, in the downright creepy article published yesterday, even spelled out how and why a military coup should take place. Here's an excerpt:

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

"Military intervention"? Have these people lost what's left of their minds? Not surprisingly, the article, linked all across the liberal blogosphere, has since been 'disappeared' by Newsmax. But nothing ever disappears from the internet.

It's quite ironic that, after all the unethical stuff done by the Bush Administration, Perry and his ilk nonchalantly shook their pom-poms and put him upon a pedestal. But it's quite sad that these crybaby conservatives can't hold down their hostility and hatred for an elected president (who is neither socialist, Marxist or Nazi), and one who won by a bigger vote total than any other candidate in U.S. history. And it really must piss them off that Barack Obama is not only a Democrat, not only a liberal, but is also part African-American.

The fact that the lunatic fringe has become the mainstream of the conservative movement in this country is both sad and humorous. By catering to a bunch of unhinged goofballs, they are destined to become a minor obnoxious fringe movement, as the more rational folks of their movement become either assimilated by the morons or go elsewhere.

P.S. Obama won. Get over it.

UPDATE: And wouldn't you know it? There is a connection between Newsmax and the Republican National Committee. It appears that the RNC is a sponsor of Newsmax, and even uses Newsmax's email list to solicit donations, as recently as last month. Think the RNC also supports armed insurrection against our elected officials, as John L. Perry apparently does? And following all that time the GOP has been wasting trying to tar-and-feather ACORN (and now even the SEIU), what does this say about them?