John O’Connor
Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican member of the new Benghazi select committee member has called Michelle Obama “uppity“:
Westmoreland, 64, has been criticized before as being overly partisan. Democrats disparaged him during the 2008 presidential election for describing candidate Barack Obama and wife Michelle as “uppity” — a derogatory term for blacks who sought equal treatment in the segregated South.
The extreme right wing blog Redstate recently published a front page diary accusing Michelle Obama and Eric Holder of encouraging “sustainable racism“:
Sustainable Racism, along with Cargo Cult Economics, are the philosophical mainstays of modern liberalism. What Sustainable Racism seeks to do is to keep fanning the flames of racial discord in order to provide jobs and political power for a handful of 1%, mostly very privileged blacks and Hispanics, by allowing them to act as Christ-like mediators between the average black and Latino and a system they revile as unjust. Rather than pursue that society where people are not judged by skin color, the advocates of Sustainable Racism insist that everyone is completely defined by their skin color.
The editor of Redstate is theorizing that the perfectly natural negative reaction to the ugly actions of the McDaniel supporting blogger in Mississippi is in reality a part of an elaborate conspiracy:
I have to wonder if this was coordinated. I ask because the situation came to light due to a press release from the Madison, MS police department. But the Madison Police Department does not issue press releases with any regularity.
These three issues share different commonalities. Two involve conspiracy theories. Two involve attacks on Michelle Obama fueled by unabashed racism.
And all three involve right wing extremist Republicans.
And they are not alone. Cliven Bundy, Donald Sterling and this New Hampshire police commissioner also just happened of course. Conspiracy theories about climate change, gun confiscation, Christian persecution, electoral fraud, and even Barack Obama’s birthplace have been around for years. And Republicans have been advocating extremist policies and ideas for years.
Taken all together, these occurrences seem to point to a party that is running headlong into a buzz saw and ignoring all warnings about the dangers they face. They seem ready to move from extremists to crackpots.
The Benghazi select committee hearings are gearing up to be a window into the extremism that reigns on the right and in the Republican party.
Some on the right, even including Charles Krauthammer, have warned against going too far in the Benghazi hearings. Given the extreme statements of the committee members, it seems practically guaranteed that they will go too far, both in and out of the hearings. Fox News appearances will probably be especially likely to evoke absurd, extreme, and offensive statements by Republican committee members.
But they are not slowing down or taking steps to moderate their growing extremism. Instead, they are dialing it up. Not unlike Karl Rove’s ethereal “permanent Republican majority,” they fervently believe that they’re on the cusp of a tea party revival sweeping the nation and the vast majority of Americans — at least a vast majority of people they consider “real Americans” — adopting their extremist far right wing beliefs.
It’s as if they have looked up and seen the buzz saw rushing toward them as they run to it. And in response, they’re speeding up as much as they possibly can.
Five Seconds to Midnight 