If, as James Piereson suggests (and welcome to the party, Rush. What took you so long?), the Cold War assassination of JFK led sixties-era Democrat elites down the rabbit hole of conspiracies, Noemie Emery brings a report on the latest comings and goings of the paranoid style:
The fascists are coming! Or rather, they’re already here, installed in the White House, planning like mad to subvert the Constitution and extend their reign in perpetuity, having first suppressed and eviscerated all opposition and put all of their critics in jail. Thus goes the rant of America’s increasingly unhinged left. If only, sigh many Bush partisans, wondering when this administration will get out of the fetal position and show some fighting spirit. To them, as to most reasonable observers, the White House shows the chronic fatigue of a two-term presidency reaching its final year. Nonetheless, paranoia about what Bush and Co. are up to preys on the minds of many progressives, who have progressed, in this case at least, beyond reason.
(Incidentally, just to check, is Noamie considered a member of Bill Kristol’s posse of thug rappers?)
My current favorite is Andrew Sullivan’s newest riff, on “The Weimar President.” I can only guess that Andrew believes that President Bush is an elderly figurehead leading a weakened but relatively benign quasi-socialist administration suffering the ravages of hyper-inflation and that Hillary, Obama or whoever his successor is, is the next Hitler, about to install a terribly malevolent war machine and concurrent massive welfare state?
Further deconstruction of this lead zeppelin of an analogy, here.
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