As politics and particularly political fundraising becomes more and more a brainstem-stimulating affair, I feel like we’re all increasingly familiar with the literary form I’m calling ‘gonzonia’, those mass emails sent out, usually to raise money, aimed at the most irascible, angry and threatened, or simply the ost impulsive people. You know, the emails with a lot of exclamation points and bolds and underlines and even double underlines when the rush of regular old underlines wears off for over-use.
Here for example is an email that just arrived from Gary Kreep (as Justin Elliott just put it a sort of Forest Gump of the far right Crazy) of the Republican Majority Coalition, delivered via the Human Events email list …
March 12, 2010
Dear Fellow American,
Barack Hussein Obama has spoken.
YOU, the American people, have decided NOT to listen!
Mr. Obama’s LIES have been uncovered!
During last week’s “bipartisan health care summit” and this week’s News Conference, Mr. Obama threatened Republicans with the “Nuclear Option” of the “reconciliation process” (a way for the majority liberal Democrats in Congress to block debate and stop a filibuster on OBAMACARE). He told them, “Americans aren’t interested in Congressional procedures, and most think a majority vote makes sense.” His comments are a sign of complete arrogance—as the highly respected Rasmussen poll shows that a MAJORITY of Americans do NOT want OBAMACARE to pass!
Not only is Mr. Obama IGNORING THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, but he has LIED—yes, I said that he has LIED—in reference to “reconciliation” and the “nuclear option.”
Now the tables are turned from a few years ago—the Democrats (just for a few more months in the majority in Congress if we here at the Republican Majority Campaign have anything to say about it!!!) complained to the then Republican majority about their use of a “reconciliation” process. Then Senators Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Harry Reid vehemently spoke against its use in the Congressional process! They then claimed that “reconciliation” was an “abuse of power” when it was used as the Senate rules intended it to be used – for reconciling the House and Senate versions of budget bills.
But, last week, Barack Obama threatened to use it in a way that Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia (the designer of the process) never intended it to be used:
TO RAM THROUGH A MASSIVE $2.5 TRILLION bill that will forever impact ONE-SIXTH of the economy of the United States of America! THIS BILL, OBAMACARE, MUST BE STOPPED, AND IT MUST BE STOPPED NOW!
There’s no question that this is a bipartisan writing style. But I also don’t think there’s any question that the stuff on the right goes not just to eleven but to a wholly different level of apocalypticism.
I think if I had more time I might put together an anthology of the best writing in this field. What are some of your favorite examples?
