Hillary Revisited

This is what I heard yesterday on the radio:

"Our philosophy, whenever we publish a book, is that there will be ten to maybe a hundred times as many people who hear about the book, compared to the number of people who actually go out and buy the book."

"Our approach and our goal is always to make sure that we use a book as a platform for an author to get out his or her message. And, by getting out that message on the media, whether it's TV or radio or print or electronic media, um, I think that gives us a sort of multiplier effect on whatever the message of the book is."

Those quotes come directly from Marji Ross, President and Publisher of Regnery Publishing, the house that gave us such hatchet jobs as Unfit For Command and The Case Against Barack Obama. If you don't believe me, you can listen to her speak those words here.

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In the news: Jerome Corsi, coauthor of Unfit For Command, has recently released a new tome, entitled The Obama Nation, that attacks Barack Obama, in part by citing Corsi's own previous works as well as unsubstantiated right-wing blog posts. The Obama Nation has risen to the top of The New York Times Best Seller List, thanks in large part to bulk sales to right-wing groups that wish to draw attention to the book. The dubious work has been dutifully shilled by the Right's many media outlets.

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From June, 2006: The investigation into the misdeeds of right-wing lobbyist Jack Abramoff shows that conservative think tanks, including Americans For Tax Reform and The National Center for Public Policy Research, helped Abramoff launder his dirty money.

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From January, 2007: Republican Senator Rick Santorum, immediately upon leaving office (after suffering defeat in his 2006 re-election bid), joins the right-wing Ethics and Public Policy Center.


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From October, 2005: Longtime Republican Bruce Bartlett was fired from his position at the conservative think tank, The National Center For Policy Analysis, after daring to criticize George W. Bush in book form, thus showing that no dissension can be allowed in the ranks of Movement Conservatives.

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Fact is, I could go on all day, posting citations that show the interconnectedness of Movement Conservatism's many organs, the rewards that await those who faithfully serve the movement, and the disciplinary actions that will be taken against those who fall off the wagon. But those already cited serve well enough to illustrate my point: Hillary Clinton was right.

Since the then-First Lady talked about a "vast right-wing conspiracy" in 1998, she has been routinely dismissed and ridiculed, but the realities of American politics are impossible to wish away. (Believe me, I tried to discount the idea as mere paranoia, but, ultimately, the links become too obvious to ignore.)

It starts with huge moneyed interests, such as the Koch, Bradley, Olin, and Scaife foundations (to name just a few). That money supports the rest of the movement:

• The conservative think tanks, including The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, The Cato Institute, etc.
• The magazines of the right-wing intelligentsia: The American Spectator, National Review, The Weekly Standard, et al.
• Daily rightist newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times (which is controlled by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon; in the most enjoyable of ironies, the Christian Right is joined to such apostates as the Moonies!).
• Rightist publishers such as Regnery, cited above.
• Electronic media outlets like The Drudge Report, Fox Noise and the Excrement In Broadcasting Network.
• The plethora of crazy fundamentalist churches across the nation that ignore the IRS' rules about involvement in electoral politics.
• And, of course, the Republican Party itself.

This is the massive network that uses its clout to manipulate many of you into voting for a movement that will do nothing to assuage your numerous cultural anxieties, but will ensure that your children are worse off than you economically. And this is what Movement Conservatism is all about.

I've said it before: If this is what you continue to vote for, it is exactly what you deserve.