Bill Post, Rush Limbaugh, The Genie & The Bottle

Right wing hate radio deejays are having a tough time of it now. Their corporate-political sponsors pushed to wrap the right in astroturf and make their movement appear as if it really were a grassroots citizens' movement. That barely worked. Their credibility was further damaged by the presence of a-few-too-many health insurance executives in leading "movement" roles and the tendency of so many leading Republican men to envelope themselves in sexual scandals of the kinds which reflected badly on their alleged family values. Besides that, the Republicans have yet to present anything like a plan for healthcare or a solution to home foreclosures and job losses.

Fire then turned on ACORN, which is not on the left, and a whacko community organizing effort in Chicago which was led by a guy described to me as "certifiable" by another community organizer many years ago. Not much traction there. I mean, crazy movements and crazed people make easy temporary targets.

They did pick up some hits with the departure of Van Jones, but public reaction to the comments by the hate radio deejays charging that Obama hates white people and that the US military is run by traitors took away from that win. Van Jones is back at it, and will be more effective in his new role than he could have been on Obama's staff.

Right around the time of the teabag parties the right started having to masquerade as the center. The common equation you heard at these events came from Glenn Beck and was echoed by Bill Post, Rush Limbaugh & Co.: ten per cent of Americans are on the looney right, ten per cent are on the looney left and we're the radical center.

In a certain sense this was a gift to the left and provided the left with an opportunity that we missed. Our opponents had to redefine themselves because of our pressure and presence and because a hard-right agenda in the US can't win at this point. "Rush is Right" gave way to Beck's inherent dishonesty and political confusion on the right.

The teabag events were smaller than predicted or hoped for--much smaller. The follow-up meetings here in Salem have been dominated by conspiracy buffs the religious right and, taken together or separately, allying with these forces is a guarantee of powerlessness.

The right is understandably frustrated. The Obama administration is faltering, the economy is in shambles, two targets they picked (ACORN and Jones) had serious setbacks, Beck made the covers of a few national magazines, some prominent liberals have deserted the center for the right--and the right still can't advance.

Not that the center or the left are doing so well either, mind you.

The rightwing rank-and-file can't get it. On their end of the political spectrum you hear more open talk about building a third party and seceding from the US. Limbaugh, Beck and Post are having to use more airtime quieting these estranged voices. These are the people who heard the racist subtexts used by the hate radio deejays loud and clear and now want to move the message--and they can't. Their own leaders are trying to put the genie or the Frankenstein back where they came from and they're having a tough time of it.

Beck gave an I-am-not-a-candidate-or-leader speech on Friday that sounded every bit like a candidate's speech, or something cribbed from Mussolini. Earlier in the week he did a racist take on leading Latino organizations, which must have made his friends in Miami cringe. Bill Post seems to have suddenly got religion and this coincides nicely with going national and picking up some new sponsors. Rush Limbaugh is left to defend the Republicans--but which ones? He can't find an individual or a faction that are truly his. Ann Coulter has been revived or reincarnated, but she sounds soooo tired of herself. It's hard work hating on a 24-7 schedule.

Candidacies built on racism, misread religion, the status quo and hate--the Republican playbook. Watch how the new emerging rightwing lines fare in the coming weeks. The right and the center will cooperate in getting out the story that the left is causing more problems for Obama than the right and will try to win over more liberals. At the same time, they will throw some rightwing ne'er-do-well under the bus by equating rightwing bluster with Michael Moore's new film and try to use something in Moore's past against the entire left. But the militant voices on the right will not be silenced, regardless of what the playbook says.

Add opportunism, slander and violence to their playbook and then see what happens.