Posted: 11/09/09 12:30, Edited: 11/09/09 13:09
by Dave Mindeman
The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.-- Paul Krugman (NY Times)
Outside of Bill Prendergast at MN Progressive Project (as well as some of the local 6th District bloggers like Hal Kimball and Political Muse), a lot of left leaning writers and activists (including myself) have considered Michele Bachmann to be a kook or extremist. Someone to make a caricature of, but not somebody to accept as a spokesperson for the right on the scale that she has nurtured.
That has to change, because Michele Bachmann is beginning to remind me of someone else....someone much more sinister....
Joe McCarthy.
McCarthy rose to prominence because of fear. Fear of communism, the red menace. He turned those fears into an irrational paranoia. It ruined lives and paralyzed the US government. For a time, everyone had to tread carefully around the potential accusations that came out of McCarthy's committee.
Bachmann is becoming the icon that the paranoid right is turning to now. She equates their fears into a "fight for freedom" or a "war against tyranny". This new paranoia is not about real fears but about a loss of power that eight years of President Bush and 6 years of a Republican Congress kept in check.
That's gone, and now their paranoia has a face and its quite different from the faces they have been used to.
Michele Bachmann has become the rallying point for this new paranoia. She listens to them...she understands them....she IS one of them. When she calls them to Washington to stand against health care, they come. Never mind that a lot of that crowd was paid for by astroturf front groups. The fact that deep pocket astroturf groups are willing to bankroll a Bachmann rally makes her all the more dangerous.
And there's more that makes her dangerous.
She has an entire news channel (Fox News) at her disposal. Her message can reach the people it needs to anytime she chooses. She is also recognized as an "official" opposition voice by other media as well. And she loves the attention, doesn't care about "facts", and makes it all personal. And dare I say it, she has a certain charisma that convinces her supporters she can do no wrong.
The Democrats chance to defeat her was in 2008. They had the right candidate and the right opportunity -- it just all came together too late.
And near defeat did not dissuade her one itoa. She came out of that election swinging and with her national profile growing, the Democrats have little chance of stopping her anymore.
Tarryl Clark is an excellent candidate. So is Maureen Reed. Clark could be a consistent winner for the DFL.....just not in the 6th District. I doubt Reed or Clark is prepared for the type of war they are about to embark on. The DFL candidate, whomever it is, is taking on an incumbant that now has an unlimited national war chest of funding. An incumbant who will be protected by a national party that has become dependent on her followers. An incumbant who can call on high profile names to support her campaign.
Is the state DFL prepared to meet that kind of challenge? I have my doubts. They can treat MB as a buffoon, but it will only enhance her appeal. Their candidates have shown an ability to raise some money but nowhere near the amounts needed to compete with Bachmann.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope that the 6th District has enough discerning voters that she can be defeated.
But at this moment, that seems nearly impossible.
No one has suggested that. Muse had suggested, publicly, that identifying her that way is counterproductive to defeating her. I don't know if he still feels that way, and it doesn't matter if does--because that's the way that people all over the country have identified her, and because that is the accurate way to identify her.
Taxpaying liberal is chasing after a non-existent straw man position here--as was Muse when he claimed that he was pressured to identify Bachmann as a nut, liar and bigot during his time at the Dump Bachmann blog. What you guys are railing against, simply did not happen.
As taxpaying liberal suggests, there are many reasons that people should vote to oust Bachmann besides the fact that she is a nut, liar and bigot. But it does candidates, media, party activists, voters and the Democrats no good to try to "shush" a fact that everyone is talking about, every week.
The "nut, liar, bigot" thing is the reason Bachmann's acquired a national following in such a short period of time. And as Mindeman points out, she's assuming the dimensions of a McCarthy nationally. The "nut, liar, bigot" record remains the most powerful argument against her continued presence in government, and it's been largely unaddressed by Dem candidates in opposition to her.
Certainly it shouldn't be the only argument presented by an opposition candidate, but no one is arguing that. And it is absurd to pretend that local Dems can or should "play down" the most obvious reason that Michele Bachmann shouldn't be in office. It can't be played down or ignored even if local Dems want to play it down, because Bachmann is now nationally notorious for that very reason. The "calling her a nut, liar and bigot" ship sailed a long time ago, boys, it's now part of national narrative of Bachmann's career whether you think it's productive or not. People involved in politics will be discussing that whether you want them to or not, and candidates and opposition efforts will be called into question if they refuse to acknowledge that harsh political reality and incorporate it into their election strategies.
And in fact, it *is* productive to point out that she is in fact a nut, bigot, and liar. The "nut and liar" fact was the basis of about two million dollars in fundraising for the Tinklenberg campaign last time around--so much money that $250K in leftover funds were redirected to other Democratic candidates around the country after the election.