George Orwell observes a fairly common thread in political discourse in his book 1984.
In Orwell's lexicography, doublethink is the practice of simultaneously believing two contradictory things. It is a form of political social and coercion, encouraged by ever-present leadership of the Party. The goal is to make the citizenry intensely pliable, thus making them easier to control. If you can dismantle that part of a person's logical reasoning centers which insists that opposites cannot simultaneously be true, you can convince them of anything.
"War is Peace"
"Freedom is Slavery"
"Ignorance is Strength"
I first noticed the recent Orwellian trend among the footsoldiers of the American Right in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11. Remember the part where the woman, Lila Lipscomb, who lost her son in Iraq challenged a supporter of the war, and the supporter got all huffy-puffy and started shouting about "fighting terrorists" and "protecting freedom and liberty" and "don't you remember what it was like when those towers fell?" (can't find a transcript, but it was something like this)
I saw that part, and initially recoiled in shock. "She's talking to a woman whose son died fighting this war!" Doesn't anyone in the world have a right not to be shouted down as a terrorist-lover?
The second thought, having recently reread 1984, was duckspeak.
If you recall the Orwell's appendices, The Party was attempting to destroy the ability of the people to engage in logical thought, an important step being the destruction of language. The end goal was "to make articulate speech issue from the larynx without involving the higher brain centres at all." The party wanted to reduce language to unthinking, pro-party quacking, in order to completely and forever remove any possibility of dissent.
You see, the woman in the movie didn't know what she was saying. She was talking to the mother of dead veterans, for God's sake. In what logical world do you attack Lila Lipscomb, someone who's made the ultimate sacrifice on the alter of war, and insist that she's wrong?
The success of the Right in radicalizing the Republican Party over the past fifteen to twenty years has relied heavily upon these methods. Taking away your freedom is the only way to protect freedom! Increasing defense spending by 4% is cutting defense spending! Recognizing the fundamental right of two people to marry is an affront on Marriage! "A storm is gathering, and I am afraid!"
And my new favorite trend, with several doublethink parts lined up like ducks all in a row: "We must protect America by fomenting revolution under the guise of the unity we felt on 9/12/2001!" Division is Unity! Revolution is Protecting America!
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength!"
Note to conservative "Teabaggers": Fomenting rebellion and violence and supporting secession is not unity - it is, by definition, disunity. It cannot be both at the same time. They're opposites.
If you ask me, Glenn Beck is a doubleplusgood doublethinker! And he's not the only one.