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Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane

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RamboLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-03-10 03:46 PM
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Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane
Edited on Thu Jun-03-10 03:53 PM by RamboLiberal
Product Description
Compiling example after example, the editors of Crooks and Liars, a popular blog, examine the torrent of right-wing kookery—the eager willingness of conservatives to fervently believe things that are provably false—and its ramifications both for our national discourse and our national well-being. The authors show how this outlandish, overheated rhetoric—generated by mainstream-media figures like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Lou Dobbs—is accompanied by a wave of lethal right-wing violence and threatening behavior.

The book explores the main drivers of this descent into madness: the extremist Radical Right and the longtime Republican willingness—dating back to Nixon, but refined in more recent years by Lee Atwater and his acolytes—to engage in a divisive politics of resentment, both racial and cultural. The authors also examine ways ordinary Americans can stop the madness.

About the Author
John Amato is the founder of Crooks and Liars, named by TIME Magazine as one of the top 25 blogs for 2009. A pioneer of video blogging, he was part of CNN's election-night coverage in 2006 and has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, and Forbes. John has also appeared as a political pundit on MSNBC, CNN, Current TV, and E Entertainment.

David Neiwert is a freelance journalist and author. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Salon, Seattle Magazine, and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report. His online reportage for MSNBC on domestic terrorism won a National Press Club Award in 2000. He is the author of The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right (PoliPointPress) and editor of the award-winning weblog Orcinus (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com).

http://www.amazon.com/Over-Cliff-Obamas-Election-American/dp/0982417179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275597813&sr=8-1

Barack Obama’s election to this nation’s highest office was an historic achievement in American politics. His victory brought the best out in many Americans, but sowed the seeds of venom and hatred in many, many others.

In the first two weeks of Obama’s presidency, more than 200 hate crimes were committed throughout the United States, including assault, arson, and murder. And within a few months, a seemingly new right wing populist faction called the Tea Party Movement invaded the political landscape.

In a groundbreaking new book, Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane (PoliPoint, June 2010), blogosphere pioneers John Amato and David Neiwert carefully document the aftermath of Obama’s victory in chilling fashion.

Amato and Neiwert explain that this “movement” was not the organic uprising it was made to appear, but rather was kick-started by Roger Ailes’ FOX News and follows in a long tradition of movement conservative activism that harkens back to the street theater days of Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist...

Over the Cliff puts the finger on the driving force behind this descent into madness: the extremist Radical Right, where the Tea Party movement’s most unhinged ideas originate, and the conservative pundits and politicians who were willing accomplices to a divisive politics of resentment

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/its-here-over-cliff-how-election-barack
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LiberalLoner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-03-10 03:53 PM
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1. I read his Eliminationists book, it was great. Thanks for this post. n/t
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Peregrine Took Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-03-10 04:30 PM
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2. Its true. The two right wingers I know have both gotten much more
extremist in their views.

I used to be able to tweak them a little on political issues but no more - they (especially the younger one - in his 60's) goes apesh*t crazy and starts writing in all caps with much vehemence attacking me. He is an ex co-worker whom I've known for 20+ years and I've just decided to end our email friendship as I have to self censor myself whenever I write to him as he is on the alert for anything/news with a political slant.

Life is too short to cater to his phobias so I just wrote him that I didn't care to correspond with him anymore.
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proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jun-05-10 10:21 PM
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3. Reading it now
Very good so far.
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JeffersonChick Donating Member (338 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jun-06-10 12:05 AM
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4. It's so sad. And aggravating
I've been wondering what the hell is up lately. I feel like it's getting to the point where there's going to be a civil war (well, in some fashion anyway).

I'm putting it on my reading list.
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