And Obama's going to bring them to America!
Republicans are on the fainting couch over the prospect of Democrats running a negative personal campaign against weirdo Mitt Romney if he's the GOP nominee.
Meanwhile, the right-wing hypocrites are currently pushing the absurd theme that Obama and Obama voters are the cause of the London riots, or at least rooting for the rioters. Wow.
It doesn't have to make logical sense. Tarring a person, an administration, a political party, or a philosophy of government with the negative emotions produced by those powerful images of fire, violence, destruction and disorder is enough, if it's repeated over and over, to build a visceral connection. That's how propaganda works.
TNR has a roundup:
Rush Limbaugh:
Most people have no clue whatsoever what the London riots are really about, and it's not hooliganism. Hooliganism is the result....what you're about to listen to is the equivalent of Obama voters in this country...During the riots, the BBC's Leana Hosea interviewed two unidentified women protesters, and this is how it sounded....Conservatives. Rich people....It's the corporate jet owners. It's the corporate jet owners and those people not paying their fair share. Specifically, it's rich people, “the people that got businesses.”...These are the equivalent of Obama voters in the United States, people you just heard here on the BBC....This is, in my estimation, precisely what we're headed for -- and I think if this were to happen, Obama would not be upset. Obama wants it.
Stanley Kurtz, National Review:
Said Obama in 1992: “The Los Angeles riots reflect a deep distrust and disaffection with the existing power pattern in our society.” That’s Alinsky-speak for “We’ve got to use the power of the angry underclass to put capitalism in check.”... I certainly don’t think President Obama would openly speak about events in London the way he spoke about the L.A. riots nineteen years ago. What he thinks to himself is another matter.
Ann Coulter:
Inciting violent mobs is the essence of the left's agenda: Promote class warfare, illegitimate children and an utterly debased citizenry. Like the British riot girls interviewed by the BBC, the Democrats tell us “all of this happened because of the rich people.” We're beginning to see the final result of that idea in Britain. The welfare state creates a society of beasts.
Glenn Beck:
If we're not going to cut taxes, they're laying the groundwork now. If we're not going to raise taxes on the millionaires and create these jobs and instead go after Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, if we do that and that doesn't get people out on the streets, I don't know what will. They are intentionally going for this to make this the case, to get the American people out on the streets, and I'm telling you now: It will be London, it will be Greece, it is coming. They've sown all the seeds they need to. It's a matter of time.”
etc. etc.
The very fact that the big guns among the right wing propagandists have leaped on this meme shows how frightened they are of having their silent class war of the rich against the rest of us called out for what it is. The right wing noise machine always targets what they figure to be the strongest position or line of attack of their opposition and tries to turn its own strengths against it.
Will Obama and the Democrats be frightened away from their timid attempts to point out that millionaires and billionaires aren't paying their fair share and need to have their taxes raised to fix the country's debt problems and reverse rising economic inequality? I hope not. A campaign using that proudly as one of its prongs could be very good for Democrats in 2012. And putting it into actual policy would be even better for the country.