I want to be careful here.  I don’t want to tar the entire conservative movement (or Republican Party) with a broad brush.  There are plenty of thoughtful, decent conservatives who are worthy opponents in the debate over the future direction of this country and the world.  At the same time, there are some on the left whose rhetoric and attitudes are beyond the pale.  So please do not regard this as a wholesale attack on the right.

That said, WTF?  WHAT ARE YOU GUYS THINKING?  HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FREAKING MINDS?

First we had this from Rush Limbaugh (h/t Media Matters):

So apparently George Soros staged the economic collapse to get Barack Obama elected.  And it goes on “below the surface”  — it’s a conspiracy you see, and we don’t know what’s really going on.

Then we had this from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (h/t TPM):

Clearly Hayworth got his talking points from Limbaugh, but he takes it one step further: it’s Schumer and Soros!  You know — and don’t say this out loud — it’s the Jews.  Because they control everything.

And then, if this wasn’t bad enough, The New York Post decides to take it a step further.  Here is an editorial cartoon that appeared in yesterday’s edition:

Ostensibly, the cartoon refers to the fact that zoo workers in Connecticut had to shoot a violent chimpanzee.  But hey — monkey, stimulus, get it?  Get it?  And the Post isn’t even trying to deny a link:

The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy.

Because when you look at dead monkeys, the first thing you should think of is the economy!  Of course!  It’s just a coincidence that the “someone(s)” who “wrote” the current stimulus bill happen to work for the President, who happens to be well, uh, black or something.  And you should just put it out of your silly heads that the cartoonist forgot about the history in this country of African Americans being portrayed as chimpanzees.

Look, I’m not trying to suggest a conspiracy here — other than Rush Limbaugh, I don’t think there’s a coordinated plan to paint the Democrats as the party of blacks and Jews and terrorists and Commies and east coast cosmopolitan elites.

But I don’t doubt that there are a large number of people who call themselves conservatives and/or Republicans who already believe just that.  And they’re not Rush’s dittoheads.  Lest we forget:

Here’s what I wrote back in October about this trend :

Contrary to expectations, we once again are having a referendum on the 1960s.  Except this time it’s not about Vietnam, it’s about civil rights.  And it’s not the Democrats who are wallowing in hippie wish-fulfillment but rather Republicans wallowing in what can only be called reactionary nostalgia.

The fundamental problem with the Republicans fighting the 1960s over again is that most Americans don’t give a rat’s ass anymore, especially given the current economic crisis.  And those that do — those that remain unhappy about the triumphs of Parks, King, Abernathy, Lewis, Young, and other heroes of the civil rights movement — decided not to vote for Obama a long time ago.

Serious and thoughtful Republicans know that reactionary nostalgia cannot be the future of their party.  They realize that they must move beyond a narrow, predominantly white base and reach out to minorities.  Even Michael Steele, the new GOP Party Chair gets this, even if some of his phraseology –

New GOP party chief Michael Steele is promising an “off the hook” public relations blitz into “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” in hopes of wooing Latinos and African-Americans.

– makes him sound like, well, a middle-aged father trying to be hip with his kids.

If Steele and others want to be serious about such outreach, they need to distance themselves from their own nutjob fringe.  Otherwise, their already narrow base is going to start looking like the head of a pin — with a massive pinhead named Rush sitting on top of it.

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