To be a serious presidential contender, after all, you have to be a fairly smart guy — and nobody has accused either Mr. Romney or Mr. Giuliani of being stupid. To appeal to the G.O.P. base, however, you have to say very stupid things, like Mr. Romney’s declaration that we should “double Guantánamo,” or Mr. Giuliani’s dismissal of the idea that raising taxes is sometimes necessary to pay for things like repairing bridges as a “Democratic, liberal assumption.” So the G.O.P. field is dominated by smart men willing to play dumb to further their personal ambitions.
This observation is also true of the many wingnut gasbags on radio, such as Bill Bennett, Laura Ingraham and Michael Medved. They deliberately play dumb to appeal to the idiots who take them seriously. (I'm pretty sure Hannity really is stupid and I'm still undecided about Fats Limbaugh)
Glenn Greenwald lets us know that wingnut bloggers are no better then wingnut radio gasbags. Here he discusses a popular wingnut delusion, reminiscent of the Red Scare of the 50s, as exemplified by Roger L. "The Hat" Simon:
...it is worth noting that substantial portions of the right-wing political movement in the United States -- the Pajamas Media/right-wing-blogosphere/Fox News/Michelle Malkin/Rush-Limbaugh-listener strain -- actually believe that Islamists are going to take over the U.S. and impose sharia law on all of us.
And then we will have to be Muslims and "our women" will be forced into burkas and there will be no more music or gay bars or churches or blogs. This is an actual fear that they have -- not a theoretical fear but one that is pressing, urgent, at the forefront of their worldview.
The blog I was just banned from subscribes to this belief and the owner and other commenters simply couldn't stand it when I pointed out that their fears were childish at best and their trust in the GOP was badly misplaced.
What is inexcusable is politicians and pundits playing to these delusions.
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