We refer to folks such as Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Sarah Palin as the "Fright Right." These demagogues of the far right offer nothing but falsehoods and fear in the guise of "dialog." These non-politicians bring nothing to the table in terms of solutions. Their tactic is to inject FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), their ideology is simple-minded, and their agenda is no more than pure self-aggrandizement.
However, to ignore them in the hope that their ideas will be seen for the follies that they are is a mistake. As any good gardener knows, weeds must be pulled or they will choke out the fragile seedlings before they have a chance to establish their roots. The process of weeding is constant, tedious, and sometimes difficult work, but it must be done. Such is also true of the efforts necessary to counter the FUD from the Fright Right. Just look at the nonsense about the made-up controversy of the "death panel" in the recent news regarding the debates of health care reforms. Lightweights such as Palin would not be in the news if she was not the poster-child for this kind of lunacy. However, those who are working seriously to make progress on healthcare issues must still take energy away from their efforts to address this kind of "moonlanding was a hoax" viral drivel. We feel it is time we join the fight to help push back the darkness.
To put our money where our mouth is, we would like to take this opportunity to announce that starting in September, we will be adding a new section called RainyDayPolitics to RainyDayMagazine. We plan to stand up, speak out, and be counted. We urge our readers to engage, add to the dialog, and help weed out the crap...grass. [Permalink] - Countering the "Fright Right"
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