Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [13]
Over the course of this book, I will argue that right-wing persecution politics is not a temporary side effect of the recession; the voices of paranoia are not harmless entertainers on the fringe but participants in a pervasive movement with deep roots that is growing and evolving and inducing pernicious effects in American society. There are ways to reverse the tide and to nurture a healthier political environment, but they will require a concerted effort across the political spectrum. In order to understand what these solutions are and how they can be effective, we must first understand the persecution politics movement: where it comes from, why it is working, and where it is leading us.
To that end, we will embark on a sort of paranoia safari, touring backward and forward through history to catch glimpses of the ferocious beasts that populate the wastelands of conservative conscience. (Visitors are advised to remain within the safety of the vehicle at all times.) By the end of the tour, we will possess a richer understanding of the feeding habits and reproductive strategies of these dangerous creatures. We can then seek to understand how they escaped the preserve and form a strategy for protecting civilization from their encroachments.
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WEEP FOR YOUR CHILDREN
How School Desegregation and
Imaginary Anti-Christian Brainwashers Gave Birth
to Right-wing Persecution Politics
What makes them so dangerous is that Secular Humanists look just like you and me. Some of them could be your best friends without you knowing that they are Humanists. They could come into your house, play with your children, eat your food and even watch football with you on television, and you’d never know they have read Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, and Huckleberry Finn.
—Art Buchwald
ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2009, the Drudge Report, a conservative news site, proclaimed in a typically muscular font, several point sizes too large for comfortable reading:
REID SHOCK: KENNEDY DEATH “GOING TO HELP US”
Directly beneath the feature story, in a more subdued type, Drudge presented an unrelated headline:
Obama to make unprecedented address to all public school students; September 8
The announcement of a presidential “back to school” speech was hardly breaking news. A few weeks earlier, Damon Weaver of Pahokee, Florida, age eleven, had scooped the story in an exclusive interview with President Barack Obama, which he published on YouTube. During the interview, Obama told Weaver of his plans to deliver a speech about “the importance of education, the importance of staying in school, how we want to improve our education system, and why it’s so important for the country.” At the end of the hard-hitting interview, Weaver invited Obama to be his homeboy; the president enthusiastically accepted. Various news outfits, including Fox News, covered the story of Weaver’s interview with little fanfare on August 14.
On August 27, a blogger using the screen name Misfit4Peace posted an article titled “Obama to make unprecedented address to all public school students” on dailypaul.com, a popular Web forum for libertarians and conspiracy theorists owned by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). The article began:
The long march continues apace as Great Leader drives us toward the new America with nationalized everything . . . if you have a strong stomach read the word.docs linked below with recommended classroom activities before and after the speech (be warned, if you love the Constitution you will want to barf).1