Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [136]
There will always be a small core of true believers who will never relinquish their fantasies. But most people who have fallen prey to persecution politics have simply been swept up in the wave of social hysteria. They rely on a constant flow of affirmation from their leaders and peers to keep their fantasy worlds intact. If that stream should run dry or go sour, the spell will inevitably break.
So if we wish to break the spell, we will have to find a way to dam that stream. We will need to find the Joseph Welchs and Edward R. Murrows of the modern day with voices too loud to be ignored. We will need to persuade the millions of Americans who aren’t using their voices to speak up and condemn the paranoia. We will need to join together and say as one nation that the men and women who have produced these fantasies are not heroes; they do not represent the vision of our founding fathers; they do not speak for us. We are the real Americans.
To paraphrase my good friend Glenn Beck: Wake up, America. It’s time to take our country back.
NOTES
Preface
1 Noel Sheppard, “Pat Buchanan and Rachel Maddow Debate Sonia Sotomayor,” NewsBusters, 17 Jul. 2009, http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/07/17/pat-buchanan-rachel-maddow-debate-sonia-sotomayor.
2 Rush Limbaugh, “America‘s Piñata Strikes Back: We Won’t Shut Up on Sotomayor, May 29, 2009,” The Rush Limbaugh Show, 29 May 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_052909/content/01125106.guest.html; “‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann for Wednesday, July 29,” 29 Jul. 2009, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32218739/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/.
3 David Limbaugh, Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christians (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2003): 235, 330.
4 Mike Allen, “GOP Congressman Calls Democrats Anti-Christian,” Washington Post, 21 Jun. 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062001194.html.
5 Rachel Maddow, “Sherrod story demonstrates ‘scare white people’ tactic,” MSNBC, 21 Jul. 2010, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38353636.
Chapter 1. How Bill O’Reilly Saved Christmas
1 Bill O’Reilly, “Walter Cronkite, Barack Obama, and the American Media,” The O’Reilly Factor, 21 July 2009, transcript, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534213,00. html.
2 “Bill O’Reilly Calls Himself ‘T-Warrior,’” ABC News, 20 Sept. 2006, http://abcnews. go.com/2020/story?id=2465303.
3 Bill O’Reilly, Culture Warrior (New York: Broadway Books, 2006): 5.
4 Bill O’Reilly, “Christmas Under Siege: The Big Picture,” The O’Reilly Factor, 24 Dec. 2004, transcript, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140742,00.html.
5 Bill O’Reilly, “Take Your Christmas and Stuff It,” The O’Reilly Factor, 9 Dec. 2004, transcript, http://www.billoreilly.com/column?pid=18833.
6 “FOX hypes stories to claim ‘Christmas Under Siege,’” Media Matters, 10 Dec. 2004, http://mediamatters.org/research/200412100006.
7 “O’Reilly: ‘There’s a very secret plan . . . to diminish Christian philosophy in the U.S.A.,’ Media Matters, 30 Nov. 2005, http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200511300007.
8 “Thoroughly debunked, O’Reilly dreams up new, apparently sinister Soros-Media Matters link,” Media Matters, 4 May 2007, http://mediamatters.org/research/200705040008.
9 “O’Reilly on ACLU: ‘I think they’re a terrorist group . . . I think they’re terrorists,’” Media Matters, 3 Mar. 2005, http://mediamatters.org/research/200503030007.
10 Bill O’Reilly, “Christmas Under Siege: The Big Picture,” The O’Reilly Factor, 14 Dec. 2004, transcript, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140742,00.html.
11 “O’Reilly promised to ‘bring horror‘ to alleged ‘anti-Christian forces‘ who oppose Christmas,” Media Matters, 7 Dec. 2005, http://mediamatters.org/research/200512070010.
12 Pat Buchanan, “Christianophobia,” World Net Daily 12 Dec. 2004, http://www.wnd. com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41900.
13 Rev. Jerry Falwell, “The impending death of Christmas?: Part 2,” World Net Daily, 13 Dec.