Past Wingnuttery

Click here for "A Brief History of Wingnuts in America; From George Washington to Woodstock," an article at Daily Beast by John Avlon, part of the latest update of his book, "Wingnuts: Extremism in the Age of Obama." Even the presidents considered by historians to be the best -- Washington, Lincoln, FDR -- had their over-the-top detractors. Avlon says:

American political history has been marked by periodic eruptions of the “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” that Richard Hofstadter famously characterized as “the paranoid style in American politics.” Wingnuts have masqueraded under different names and causes at different times, but they have always been committed to an “us against them” framing of domestic debates while inflaming group hatred in the name of politics and alleged principle. They prey on fear and ignorance.

Survey Wingnut rhetoric through the ages and the usual suspects keep surfacing: appeals to religious suspicion; ethnic and racial divisions; foreign subversion of sovereignty; and perhaps the oldest conspiracy theory of them all—accusing the president of the United States of being a tyrant and a dictator bent on destroying the Constitution.