February 24, 2014

If you believe Ted Nugent actually meant to apologize for his over-the-top ridiculous claim that President Obama was a "subhuman mongrel," I've got some great bridges to sell you. Of course he meant it, because he is part of a larger strategy to step beyond merely de-legitimizing the President in order to feed into far-right paranoia. That paranoia, by the way, is increasing in direct proportion to the tea party's irrelevance.

This is Nugent's latest spew:

NUGENT: Well I got to tell you, Dennis, I just don't agree at all. There was an incrementalism to what happened in Germany and other places historically, where they came in slowly. And they started, you know, the power struggle between the different races, and the power struggle between different elements of society. And they incrementally worked their way in. And I think that's what Obamacare is, that's what I think most of what he represents. The IRS -- I really believe that what we see with the IRS can be compared accurately and historically to the early maneuvers of people like jack booted thugs, like the brownshirts. I really believe that and I think that you are being too soft on them, because --

MILLER: No, we just disagree Teddy.

NUGENT: I think he really wants to destroy America. I think he wants to follow the Saul Alinksy Rules for Radicals book, destroy our economy, have a -- I can't even think of the term right now -- but the war between the haves and the have nots, when the haves have because they try really hard and the have nots don't have because they don't try as hard.

Over the weekend Alan Caruba, a blogger at Tea Party Nation, shared his deep concerns with the community that Obama was just like Hitler. Referring to the utterly paranoid and over-the-top plans for a May 16th "American Spring" in Washington, DC, Caruba wrote:

My most profound fear, my paranoia, concerning the May 16 protest, despite its instructions to participants not be armed, is that some incident would escalate to a point where shots were exchanged. One can conceive of that serving as the reason to initiate an “emergency” proclamation and/or to declare martial law.

[...]

I worry that members of our military and others would obey orders to impose governmental control to the extent that we might see widespread resistance by millions of armed Americans. I regard the surge in the purchase of weapons by private citizens during Obama’s terms in office as a reflection of the paranoia that I am feeling these days.

That American Spring idea is funded by right-wing agitators who know that chaos and confusion redound to their benefit in the midterms. It's not all that different from the 2009-2010 town hall meetings they used to create the "Tea Party wave election." Here's their list of goals for this gathering:

Phase 1 – Field millions, as many as ten million, patriots to assemble in a peaceful, non-violent, physically unarmed

Phase 2 – At least one million of the assembled 10 million to stay in D.C. as long as it takes to see Obama, Biden, Reid, McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi, and Attorney General Holder removed from office.

Phase 3 – Politicians with the principles of a West; Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson, Lee, DeMint, Paul, Gov Walker, Sessions, Gowdy, Jordan, to comprise a tribunal to convene investigations and recommend appropriate charges against politicians and government employees who have violated the Constitution

No one believes they'll realistically succeed, but that's not the point. The point is to keep hammering home to the wingnut base that Obama's presidency is not legitimate. That keeps their base hot and bothered enough to go out and vote in the primaries for insane candidates who want to burn the country down by defaulting on the national debt and deregulating everything, just for starters.

They're turning up the volume now, and Ted Nugent is serving as one of their amplifiers. Because guns. And fear.

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