Shouting Fire in a Crowded Movie House: How the Right is Looking to Incite the Gullible with Lies and Slander

From time to time – usually when I’m bored - I slum it as it were and turn on the last bastion of conservative talk left on the radio: WABC 770 on you’re A.M. dial just in case you too needed to be reminded of how nice it is that you still have a brain capable of discernment. For the vast majority of those lost and timid souls who call this station their home that, sadly, cannot be said. I give good old Imus in the Morning a brief listen. Not as funny as he was before he was fired, but it does bring back memories. Then there’s Joe Scarborough, the lone conservative voice on MSNBC, who no doubt feels like a prisoner on furlough when he is on the radio among his “peers”. From there it goes down hill fast. Rush Limbaugh from noon to three, followed by Sean Hannity from three to six. And then it all comes to a crescendo with my personal favorite: Mark R. Levin – the R stands for repulsive - from six to whenever I finally give in and throw up. Listening to these stooges spew is like eating lunch at a McDonald’s or Burger King; you know it’s polluting your insides, but you go anyway for the entertainment value of it all.

While you may have thought that getting thoroughly routed in last year’s election would elicit some degree of soul searching among the ring-bearers of the right wing of the Republican party, if anything it has embolden them like never before. When they were in power they were obnoxious enough, now that they are out of power and flirting with extinction, they have turned on the afterburners, leaving nothing in the proverbial bullpen. Everything Obama stands for is socialism; OK we get that part. Fascists referring to the opposition as socialist and or Communist is standard operating procedure among this lot. But it isn’t so much the rhetoric as the tone that has me alarmed. Between the “Tea Party” hoopla, which has been funded mainly by large corporate interests and Fox News as opposed to the grass roots groups it was supposed to have been funded by, and the hysterical nincompoops who call in to the Lords of Incitement, all of whom have been whipped up into a frenzy over the future of America under “Emperor Obama”, the stage has been set for something potentially dangerous to happen.

While I never expect the words responsible and conservative to be seen together in the same sentence these days, I at least have some reasonable expectation that some degree of discipline be observed, even among those individuals who have repeatedly demonstrated little love for the word. But when supposedly grown, mature leaders in the Republican Party suggest it would be OK to secede from the United States rather than be party to a democratically elected President’s policy; or that it is time to “take back our country” as Glenn Beck said a couple of weeks ago on Fox, perhaps not quite realizing that such a statement could be inferred to suggest an armed rebellion against his own government, which is tantamount to treason; or when groups of people gather at “staged” events and openly suggest a less than peaceful solution to the Communist horde currently infiltrating Washington, then it is time to officially be concerned. In fact it is time to be VERY concerned.

The degree to which these minions have been whipped up into a lather by this throng of demagogues is rapidly approaching critical mass. A catastrophic climax will result unless some sanity prevails. Unfortunately, sanity is not something that the far Right has been known to exhibit. Do not kid yourselves. Unstable and unbalanced people do not need much prodding to do stupid things. One of the reasons the Nazi party is still in business in this country is because they seek out emotionally scarred and gullible teenagers and recruit them into their ranks. They poison their minds by telling them that the Jews, “niggers” and “Spics” are out to end their way of life and that the only “responsible” thing to do is stand up to them and “take back” what has been wrongfully stolen from them. Their inciting and provocative language is directly aimed at those who can least understand the manipulation that is at work. They are the ultimate victims of scam artists who seek not enlightenment, but violence and death.

Change a few words here and there and what you have is a perfect illustration of how the lunatic Right has embraced this philosophy. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin have made a living of not just lying to their listeners, but deliberately inciting them to even entertain the notion that Obama is their sworn enemy and that defeating him by any means is not only necessary, but patriotic. At no point have any of them shown any inclination to quell emotional callers who suggest acts of violence against the government; in deed just the opposite. They have gone out their way to fan the flames of discontent. Hannity, himself, has a website that for some time now has had posts from individuals with various revolutionary scenarios, with armed rebellion and secession leading the way.

At some point the issue of free speech must succumb to the very real and dangerous charge of sedition. Shouting fire in a crowded movie house when there is no fire, is NOT free speech, and the Supreme Court said as much. There is a line that all responsible citizens must never cross. Intelligent and honest debates can be waged between reasonable people without resorting to Gestapo tactics. I remember watching William F. Buckley on “Firing Line” many years ago. I disagreed with many of his views, and were he alive today, I’m sure he would disagree with many of President Obama’s policies. I doubt seriously that he would resort to such reprehensible conduct as inciting his listeners in such a manner. Buckley, in all probability, would be appalled at what has happened to his beloved Republican Party, and probably condemn such acts as lunacy and suicidal, counter productive to any rational discourse on the issues of the day, and make no mistake about it, no matter how you or I felt about his views – he was a neocon and extreme fiscal conservative – he invited debate. He lived for the challenge of welcoming his foes and vanquishing them on his show, not by clubbing them to death, but by showing them the folly of their ways with the logical precision of a master debater who was passionate and intellectual, all in the same breath.

Perhaps that is what is wrong with the Republican Party. It has shifted away from those individuals who had a vision and a moral compass, but who also had the intellectual sophistication to persuade people in an open forum. Ideas and ideals were not alien; in fact they were germane to the very discourse they were engaged in. They were not afraid of defeat, for they knew that the Republic would always survive no matter who won. They would live to fight another day, for their cause, at least in their minds, was just.

That Republican Party is long gone. Fear, ignorance and hatred are all that is left of the party of Lincoln. Reagan is but a ghost of himself, and the lunatics have in deed taken over the asylum. But that is not the threat here. That they have succeeded in taking over the asylum is one thing; that they are threatening to break out and start a riot is quite another. Repeating inflammatory statements over and over to a captive audience which is too naïve to know better is beneath contempt. This is no longer about the differences between liberalism and conservatism, which I agree would be an entertaining and vital debate for the country. This has now become a freak show that if it isn’t put in check could prove injurious to unsuspecting people, perhaps even threaten the President himself.

If you think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here, know this. Hitler kept repeating slanderous lies about the Jews long before he came to power in Germany. Six million of them were killed in death camps. If history has taught us anything it is that if you keep repeating something over and over, no matter how outlandish and untrue it is, eventually enough people will believe you. If referring to President Obama as a socialist bent on destroying the principles and values of America is not provocative and inciting, I don’t know what is. As we learned in Dallas in 1963, it only takes one bullet to kill a President. I pray we never have to relive that dreadful moment in our history.