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Dave Neiwert and I have been writing a book for over two months now and in my research I discovered how easily manipulated movement conservatives from the 70's and 80's are when it comes to characters they see in film and television. It also extends to today, since we've seen how the torture scenes in 24 have also had an impact on right-wingers.

I never believed previously that music or TV shows could really influence people in their thinking because we can discern the difference between reality and fiction, but not so for conservatives. After right-wing extremist conservatives like Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist watched the movie Patton, they totally flipped out over it and became obsessed with the anti-communism and pro-military stances it championed. They believed Scott was real.

In Nina Easton's book, Gang of Five, she detailed Ralph Reed and other College Republican leaders' reactions to George C. Scott's performance in the movie:

Several hundred college students cheering a call to arms is something I shall not forget. In short order, gruesome Patton guerrilla talk became Ralph's forte: "I paint my face and travel at night," he infamously explained to a reporter ten years later. "You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag."

--

One year, the College Republicans Christmas card featured a photo of Patton standing on a stone, binoculars in hand, under the words, "Merry Christmas from the front." Abramoff, who cultivated an image of a reasonable adult, forswore Patton's gutter language (though he got a thrill out of the fact that screen writer Francis Ford Coppola had intended his audiences to be horrified by Patton's antics, when in reality young conservatives fell in love with the tyrannical general.)

So I fell off my couch laughing when Bill O'Reilly inserted scenes from Patton to attack President Obama's Afghanistan speech with the other night. Movement conservatives obviously view war as a fictitious movie, explosions and intense battles used for nothing more than dramatic effect. And the lives lost are but mere props.

They actually believed that George C. Scott was General Patton, and so they want Democratic politicians to live up to an Oscar-winning actor's performance rather than the reality we actually face. Whenever progressives pointed out Bush's awful communication skills, they defended him at every turn. Conservatives often criticize Obama's speeches because he's too mesmerizing and effective for them and they hate that, because George Bush failed miserably when he tried to communicate with the public.

O'Reilly: Talking points believes the bigger problem is Mr. Obama's lack of passion for victory. What the nation needed to hear last night was a little General Patton...

No matter how you feel about the speech (I want out of Afghanistan)this illustrates the kind of delusional reality conservatives labor under on a daily basis. BillO is looking for Obama to be George C. Scott instead of the president of the United States. Simply amazing. We want action not words.

Grover, since you've always been such a kind and caring (translation: really creepy) American, I thought I'd help you out by further explaining your new talking points on health-care reform:

Over the August recess, Congressmen will be holding townhalls on health care. There’s likely to be a lot of spin and doubletalk from very nervous Democrat members. We’ve assembled a dictionary to help you wade through the rhetoric and understand the real impact of healthcare “reform.”

No discrimination for pre-existing conditions: \prē-ēx-sisting con-df-shun\
One can wait until one gets sick to sign up for coverage, and thereby game the system, costing the rest of us.
Also: n. trick, fraud, ploy
Also: v. cheat, dupe, fleece

Hey, hon, I know you know better than this. We all know the insurance companies have been using harmless conditions like teen acne as an excuse to deny coverage to a 50-year-old. Shame on you, Grover!

No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays: \per-sŭn-al ex-pen-sĕs\
You can’t have a health savings account (HSA) even if you
want to keep one. If you want to save money on your premium
by having a high deductible, the government won’t let you
Also: v. coerce, coercion, coerced

Grover, I know HSAs are an element of Republican faith (see Golden Rule) but believe it or not, we have actual studies (done by people who aren't employed by conservative think tanks, so they might be true!) showing people delay needed care because of high deductibles and co-pays - leading to more complicated, serious illness. Not that you care.

No cost-sharing for preventive care: \prē-ven-tĭv kâr\
An unelected and unaccountable government board of bureaucrats will decide what procedures must be first-dollar, even if you don’t value them
See: arbitrary price inflation

Oh Grover, I know that "bubble" elites like yourself just don't understand: Unelected and unaccountable INSURANCE bureaucrats are making those decisions right now - and people are dying as a result.

No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill:
\ ĭn-shûr-əns kŭv-ər-ĭj\
This only happens in Helen Hunt movies, but Congress will demagogue it anyway to scare us.
See: global warming hysteria, cap-and-trade

Really, Grover? It only happens in Helen Hunt movies? Are you calling a CIGNA VP a liar? Rescission is a well-known insurance industry practice. You know better.

No gender discrimination: \jen-der dee-scrim-in-a-shun\
You’ll be forced to have your tax dollars pay for abortion and other things you disagree with. You’ll also be forced to purchase a plan which covers abortion on demand for all nine months
See: conscience clause

First of all, Grover, for the past eight years, I've had to pay for all kinds of things I disagree with: A trumped-up war, torture, tax breaks for the top one percent... Normally, I'd say, hey, the other guy won and he gets to do what he wants, but I'm pretty sure your guy stole the election with help from the Supreme Court.

And the part about "abortion on demand"? That's an outright lie, and you know it. At this point, it looks like abortion won't be covered at all. But you just don't care, because you'll push any button that works to keep your corporate overlords from losing this fight.

No annual or lifetime caps on coverage: \kăps\
Congress will tell insurance companies how they have to price their coverage and determine risk
See: arbitrary price inflation

You're right on this one, Grover. No more people denied expensive, life-saving cancer treatment because they were also in a bad car accident 20 years earlier. Boo hoo.

Extended coverage for young adults: \əx-stən-dəd kŭv-ər-ĭj\
1.“Children” up to age 30 will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance at taxpayer expense
2. Inculcating the culture of entitlement and preening a generation of welfare-dependents
See: slackers, mom’s basement

Actually, Grover, you may not know this but there's a major unemployment crisis outside that privileged bubble in which you live. Many of these young adults are so desperate to find work and pay their school loans, they're taking minimum wage jobs with no benefits. It would be nice to know that if they get sick, they won't have to die to impress people like you.

Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid: \gâr-ŭn-tēd ĭn-shûr-əns\
Another red herring that Congress will use to scare people into adopting government medicine
Also: scare tactic

See above for "rescission."

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CNN's Rick Sanchez played a portion of Arlen Specter's press conference to South Carolina's Jim DeMint and asked him if Republicans are weeding out the moderates from the party -- and isn't that a bad thing?

Sanchez: Republicans are making it very difficult for other Republicans because, and he said this on several times, you tell me what you think of it. You're shrinking the electorate to an extreme, to a point that a regular republican can't win. What do you make of that argument?

DeMint: Oh, that's quite the opposite. We're seeing across the country right now, the biggest tent of all is freedom and what we need to do as Republicans is convince Americans that freedom can work in all areas of their life, for all Americans, whether it's education or health care or creating jobs...

Sanchez: What the hell does that mean? The biggest tent is freedom. FREEDOM, I mean, you gotta do better than that.

DeMint: No, what it means is what has worked in America, free people, free markets for years.

Conservatives always say that there problems aren't really problems at all. It's Freedom baby, Freedom is our Big Tent party! That freaked out Sanchez -- understandably, because DeMint's answer made no sense. See, Specter leaving the Republicans is a good thing because he's free to do what he wants. His defection is just an application of their Freedom principle. I'm surprised DeMint didn't paint his face blue and don a kilt for this performance.

And DeMint actually says that Club For Growth's Pat Toomey is a mainstream American. Yeah, a Grover Norquist mainliner, he means. CFG is very upset that they are being attacked. He also blames Democrats for the auto companies falling apart.

Piece. Of. Work.

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From Grover Norquist's RNC Chairman debate. I swear watching this thing was like being able to watch a car wreck in slow motion. You know you shouldn't look but somehow you just can't take your eyes off of it. During one of Grover's "lightening rounds" the group of potential heads of the RNC are asked who their favorite and least favorite Republican Presidents are. They all of course pounce on Reagan as their favorite...lol. They'd have raised his dead corpse up this last election to run if they'd thought the voters would have gone for it. But when asked who was the worst Republican President most of them had a bit more trouble answering the question.

Hey here's one for you.....GEORGE BUSH. Blackwell actually gets some applause for this statement:

Hoover because he opened the door to big government and activism and I think that unfortunately President Bush in the last few months has opened up the door to Mr. Obama's big government...activism.

So what Hoover did wrong was to open the door for FDR to come in behind him and have the public support for the ability to try to clean up his mess? I see Hooverism is still alive and well in the Republican Party.

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In his opening statement at Grover Norquist's RNC Chairman debate, Ken Blackwell proclaims that he "knows how to win elections". I would digress Mr. Blackwell and say that you've instead shown a willingness to help steal them. And what is one of his solutions for future Republican victories? Redistricting. Good old Republicans. If you can't win fairly win by hook or by crook.

I've got to wonder how Blackwell and Steele felt sitting there with Chip Saltsman during this event especially given that Steele slammed Saltsman for his Barack the Magic Negro stunt.

Guys like Grover Norquist are one of the reason America faces financial ruin. His insane positions on tax cuts and how government should function have resulted in what we have today. He once said:

My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years," he says, "to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

He almost succeeded in drowning U.S. citizens instead. Anyway, the Saturday Stock Shows were all freaking out since Obama won the election and their free market, deregulation style has been a disaster, but that won't stop them from crying about how much money the "rich" people are paying in taxes. The guys at Forbes and Cavuto were just screaming "tax cuts" throughout.
While debating David Sirota last week on CNBC, Grover actually said this:

The economy is in the present state because when the Democrats took the House and Senate in 2006, you knew those tax increases were going to come in 2010, the stock market began to collapse as soon as you recognized those old tax rates were coming back.

Why are these people still on our TV? They lie, lie, and lie.,...

Sirtota:

Notice how Norquist - with a straight face - actually claims that the current economic crisis is due to Democrats taking control of Congress in 2006.