World Net Daily and the dance of Republican politics

2008 seems so long ago in the pumped-up 24-hour news cycle of spin-and-rinse, repeat as needed. It's easy to forget how opinion sites in the guise of news organizations relentlessly hammer their talking points in parallel universes. The echo-chamber even has its desired result: in 2011, presidential hopeful Rick Perry could claim that one man's solvent retirement plan is another's Ponzi scheme. Except that it sunk him in the daily polls, there is no doubt the governor of Texas would have sailed on with his alternate reality in an attempt to win the White House.

And what sunk Perry was the reaction of his own Republican Party. Finally, this week, there are reports that the GOP "establishment" (and what what an elite group that must be) are going back to the conservative center and putting some distance between itself and the musical chairs of Tea Party politics. If they have any hope of a win next year, the GOP reasons, it won't be by courting the Bachmann or Perry or Cain tentshows, and -- reluctantly or not -- by putting Mitt Romney into the center ring.

Such hopes are probably making William F. Buckley smile down from the heavenly Yale club.

Not that the extreme-opinion sites will be happy: cries of treachery, abandonment, and ruin will be loud and long. But it will be nothing new -- other than the fact that the groups the GOP once courted will join the Log Cabin Republicans banging on the door to come in out of the cold themselves. But before the rise of the Tea Party in 2009, anger and fearmongering were aimed strictly at one target: the newly-elected "socialist menace" represented by Barack Obama.

In 2008, the presence of Obama in the White House presaged the end of the American Dream -- and presented a great sales opportunity to those wise enough to hop on an opposition bandwagon. World Net Daily was, and continues to be, one potent example of how a mix of American politics, opinion, and targeted advertising work in tandem to create a parallel universe of fear and anxiety.

Forget the GOP-sponsored celebrity of Joe the Plumber and his subsequent charges of being "used" by the McCain campaign -- for shame, McCain! -- it's letters from readers like Bob in Chicago that really reflect the right's change in national mood in the wake of Obama's convincing sweep of November 4. Yes, there's really nothing quite like reading the (possibly) made-up rants like those posted at the World Net Daily website.

While the crowd in Grant Park saw the real beginning of America's 21st century aspirations, Bob saw "death", "tragedy," and "carnage" in the celebration after leaving a concert nearby. He labels the Obama victory "a sin against God and country." There's no telling if he witnessed the '68 Democratic Convention riots in the same location, or what he thought of them -- but his letter to WND about November 4, 2008, titled "the day my country died," is below.

I write this letter with a heart heavy beyond words. I am almost half a century old and have cried for my country only twice in my life. The first time was during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The second time was on Nov. 4, 2008, when Hussein Obama won the presidential election. Of those two times, the latter was by far more disturbing and depressing. It will also prove to be more damaging to America.

I cast my vote for the Constitution Party that morning, went to work and then came home praying that perhaps Obama would not win. I am not one who is deluded by the false argument of voting for the lesser of two evils, hence my vote for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. However, that does not mean I did not understand clearly that while McCain would be bad for the country, Obama would be far worse.

So, I decided to attend a concert in downtown Chicago to get my mind off the election. By the time I left for the concert, the writing was on the wall. Obama was far ahead in several battleground states. I reasoned that since even the bravest soldier will tend to shut his eyes if only for a moment to block out the horrors of war, surely no one would blame me for closing my mind for an hour or two against the horrors of the election reality. Indeed, the lead singer
of the band admonished us to let go of everything else, forget our worries and the election specifically, and just enjoy ourselves for that short time. I tried to block it out, but my mind kept wandering to the mythological story of Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Indeed, I sent a text message (tinged with guilt) to a good friend after the concert, saying, "I was attending a concert while my country died."

While the concert was indeed enjoyable and took my mind off the outside world to a large degree, the moment I walked outside I could feel a change. The Obama rally was still in full swing not far from the concert hall, and yet there was an uneasy, unnatural quiet in the air. It was a feeling similar to that which comes after a death, or after a tragedy or carnage. It was as if the world had changed in those two hours while I was secluded in the concert hall. It no longer felt like America. It was like being in a foreign country where people have different values, different perceptions, different lifestyles. I felt alien for the first time in my life. I felt nothing but anger, disappointment and contempt for so many of my fellow Americans who voted for and elected a socialist enigma for reasons I cannot possibly comprehend.

The Republican Party was so relaxed and laid back about the whole affair (despite all the under-reported fraud issues on the other side) and rolled over so easily that it was as if they were accomplices in this sin against God and country. I actually felt physically nauseated. I felt much the same as I have in recent years immediately following the death of beloved family members, only this time I was mourning an entire country and way of life, as well as my own faith in our system.

What is most disconcerting now is listening to fools babble on about how "historic" the moment was, in a manner that serves only to expose their ignorance. Historic? Yes, in the same manner that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were "historic." Not something sane people celebrate. It feels as if a great percentage of the population have collectively lost their minds.

So the question now is what to do? Where to go from here? I'm not sure I know. Looking at the percentage of college students and younger people who voted for Obama, it seems more unlikely than ever that there is any hope of instilling in this generation (or the next) the sense of pride in America that I felt at their age, or the respect I held for the Constitution, or the love of an America envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Instead, our children are being indoctrinated into a socialist agenda, and their parents have now elected a socialist president. What hope is there of restoring America as a constitutional republic when those who are the future are programmed subjects, servitors of the state, as opposed to free-thinking citizens?

Mr. Farah, I beseech you. Please start supporting the Constitution Party. Not before the next election, but today, immediately. You have repeatedly stated that adherence to the Constitution is the gold standard for a presidential candidate. Apply that standard to political parties and you get only one that reaches that standard – the Constitution Party. History has shown us that the Republicans have taken us as far from the Constitution as the Democrats have. Both parties are morally, ethically and constitutionally bankrupt. The only way to reverse the course of this country, if such a thing is even possible now, is to elect the Constitution Party into power. No other party is going to move us closer to the Constitution and an America as envisioned by the Founding Fathers. True, patriotic Americans need to turn to the Constitution Party if they want America to survive. We need people like Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and others to wake up, let go of the wreck known as the Republican Party and turn their support to the Constitution Party. Otherwise, there may soon be no right to vote left in this country.

Bob in Chicago

Well, it's no wonder Bob was so upset. After a two-year election process, in which WND and editor-in-chief Joseph Farah wrote regularly to confirm that Obama is Muslim, Obama pals with terrorists amid the ads for "Nobama" bumper stickers, it's possible that Chicago Bob may just have a bit of ... misinformation about America's first African-American president. That's hardly surprising in an online "news organization" featuring Ann Coulter and a mohawked "Christian libertarian" blogger named Vox Day. Here's an excerpt from Day's column following Obama's July appearance in Berlin:

What is the connection between Italian indifference to dead Roma girls and European indifference to the nebulous HopeChange pushed by Barack Obama? It is that Europeans previously bought this same pig in a poke. The fluffy promises of progress, change and unity Obama makes are all too similar to those made by a previous generation of European politicians, promises that have resulted in the importation of a foreign criminal class, fewer jobs, fewer families, a vastly increased cost of living, limited economic prospects for the future and the loss of democratic rule.

Europeans have recognized Obama for a fraud even without being privy to his frequent misstatements of fact; the magical negritude that has so dazzled the superficial American press no longer disguises the fact that Sen. "57 States" is little more than an empty-headed newscaster with a nice voice who is skilled at reading the teleprompter. No wonder the American media likes him – he could easily have been one of them.

What doesn't get said anywhere on World Net Daily is that "Vox Day" is the son of Robert Beale, who is on the site's board of directors. (Vox does have a bitchin' mohawk, though -- call it what you will, it's a stunning statement of his "caucatude.") From WND, here's something titled "Is this Obama's real birth certificate?" Funny, funny stuff.

In the meantime, news reports -- real ones -- claim that sales of personal firearms had increased in the midwest states since November 4, 2008. It wasn't long before the opinion sites worked up the new threat of a Democratic "Obamalypse," putting the 2012 election cycle in play before "that one" even got to the Oval Office. And if the Republican party machine decides to dump the Tea Party in 2012 -- or at least leave it waiting lonely at the altar -- it will be interesting to see how the jilted lover reacts in the coming election cycle.