Demonization Porn
And
What To Do About Right-Wing Hatred And Irrationality

So, as you know, a largish segment of the right has fallen into a veritable orgy of demonization directed at liberals in general and Obama in particular. It's actually pretty scary to watch, rather in the way that the Exorcist is scary to watch. Basically normal people transformed by the power of their own (and others') hatred and irrationality into snarling, frothing-at-the mouth parodies of themselves. By spinning fables about the demonic nature of liberals, they've managed to have real effects on themselves. It's a chilling study in irrationality.

Perhaps an overused Nietzsche quote is appropriate here:

He who fights monsters must see to it that he himself does not become a monster in the process.

It's a familiar pattern on the right, of course. They just don't seem to be able to resist. Before Clinton was even elected they were calling for his impeachment. He was a rapist, a drug-runner, a murderer. These people are, in a very real (even if not a clinical) sense, insane. (And, note: they also seem particularly susceptible to deification of their own candidates--Reagan is the greatest president since Jefferson (and belongs on Mount Rushmore), Bush is Reagan (Bush is Churchill, etc.), Palin is Reagan...etc.)

My question here is: why? Why isn't it enough to run against and oppose the real Obama, whose policies ratioal people might certainly disagree about? Why the need to fabricate an Obama that can be a representation of pure evil--a Manchurian Muslim sent to bring down the country, a "Chicago politician" aiming to steal the election, a terrorist and terrorist sympathizer, a child molester...the Antichrist for chrissake.

It's as if they can't perform politically without whipping themselves up ahead of time with demonization porn. (Just a few quick recent examples: here, here. The examples can, as you know, be multiplied ad nauseam.)

The question: WTF is going on here, anyway? If they really think Obama is so terrible, why the need to demonize him? And if they don't really think that Obama is so terrible, why the need to demonize him? Either way, it doesn't seem to make any sense.

You might say: demonization is a strategy used by the more nominally sane and cynical conservative elite as a means of controlling their masses. I think there's truth in that, but I don't think it does all the requisite explanatory work here. Such a strategy can only work on a subset of the population that's predisposed toward this sort of thing. Still, this hypothesis is worth thinking about.

I'm inclined to think that it is important to look beyond the election at this point. Obama is almost certainly going to win. We shouldn't let up, of course, but a big lead provides us with a certain kind of luxury--we can afford to spend at least some attention and effort looking farther and deeper than this election. We've been reminded again that the American right has some very deep-seated problems that constitute a frightening potential. These intellectual and moral failings are probably present in every political party and every relevant subset of the population...but they are particularly acute on our right, and I am inclined to think that they mus be addressed. Once this moment is passed, I guess it will be difficult to get anyone to take the problem very seriously; consequently, I think we should try to address it now.

Reforming the health-care system, for example, is extremely important. My guess, however, is that it is even more important to mitigate whatever it is that is responsible for the hatred and irrationality on display across the aisle. This is the kind of broad, diffuse, deep-seated problem that can constantly cause significan problems, and that contains the potential for occasional disaster. Rather like an untreated blood clot, it is a constant drag on us, and has the potential to kill or maim the body politic.

It's the kind of problem no one knows how to fix. I'm sure that many will respond by saying that there's no hope of improving the situation. But that's almost certainly false. The smart guess is that there is something we could do to significantly mitigate--though not elminate--the problem. We just don't know what it is. It's foolish to counsel despair in any such case. Humanity has cracked tougher problems than this. Even if ultimately we cannot improve the situation, that in no way entails that we should not address the problem in a serious and energetic way.