THE RIGHTWING MAINSTREAM MEDIA

When I was young, one of the rightwing extremist groups that most of my fellow citizens weren't even aware of but still had influence in the political realm was the John Birch Society. They were so extreme their founder accused President Eisenhower of being a communist agent! That accusation and their influence on the Republican Party caused Ike to cave in to their rightwing demands and add "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance to distinguish the USA from "atheistic Communism."

Now The John Birch Society has a voice and frontman in Glen Beck. But he takes their original message—that anyone to the left of them (i.e. actual "conservatives" and moderates and centrists, et. al.) is a "socialist/communist/Nazi"—even further, by quoting and recommending the writings of Willard Cleon Skousen, a man who was even too extreme for The Birch Society! but whose completely false take on the origins and history of our Constitution is now a bestseller thanks to Beck teaching and recommending it.

Here's a link to a great article by Sean Wilentz about this, which also refers to how obvious the rightwing influence and control of even the mainstream media is now, one example being Newt Gingrich, who holds no office and whose credibility should be nil after his political failures and flip flops, let alone his hypocritical public stances vs. his private life (trying to impeach a president for having sex out of marriage with an intern when Gingrich was doing exactly that same thing at that exact time! etc.).

Nonetheless, Gingrich appeared on Meet the Press to spout his lies and distortions and attack anyone with real credibility to refute him, over thirty-three times in one recent period, while some of the actual elected Democratic politicians he's lying about weren't on the show during the same period AT ALL!

It's enough to make you believe it must all be in your brain, some kind of hallucination. People can't actually believe that the theories of a writer who was even too much of a liar and distorter of facts for the most extreme rightwing group in politics in the '50s and '60s, is now the bestselling author on Amazon because a clown like Glen Beck has become the main educator for many obviously uneducated "Americans"!?!  Can they?