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JONAH GOLDBERG'S FAIL OF THE DAY.
Republicans have been struggling to reconcile crazed right-winger James von Brunn's assault on the Holocaust Museum with their Manichean worldview in which people on the right represent everything that is decent and good about the world, and liberals represent only the purest of evil. Jonah Goldberg, who has made something of a career out of trying to convince people that discredited right wing movements are actually products of the left, takes a stab at doing the same with Von Brunn. Dave Weigel reports:
“From what I can tell,” explained Jonah Goldberg, the author of the 2008 bestseller “Liberal Fascism” and a writer for National Review, “his hatreds echoed the kind of stuff we hear from the Kos crowd, Chris Matthews, Andrew Sullivan et al.” Goldberg called Von Brunn “objectively crazy,” but argued that “his hatreds would be easier to find at an ANSWER rally than at CPAC.”
That's right. A neo-nazi who hates blacks, Jews, and thinks Obama wasn't born in the United States is going to be more at home with a group called "ACT NOW TO STOP WAR AND END RACISM" rather than the political convention where they're selling Obama Waffles and conservative figures get applause for questioning Obama's citizenship.
Look, the desperation here speaks for itself. No one would mistake von Brunn for the average conservative. But their breathless attempts to distance themselves only draw more attention to the fact that many conservatives have come to embrace the kind of conspiratorial fantasies that von Brunn believed in.
-- A. Serwer
COMMENTS (10)
I have no doubt that Sean Hannity would book Jonah Goldberg for his show tonight, but Hannity thinks Ann Coulter will say the same things and is better for ratings.
Posted by: Michael A. Shea | June 12, 2009 2:46 PM
mami's boy jan. 7, 2009
"But I think the desire to cast the Israelis as Nazis is fueled, deep down, by the haters’ need to see their own hatreds and ambitions mirrored in their enemy’s actions..."
"It brings to mind Huey Long’s reported prophecy that if fascism ever came to America, it would be called anti-fascism.
Liberalism is the new right wing batshit crazy. Who knew??
Posted by: red | June 12, 2009 3:06 PM
Didn't von Brunn also hate Bush, Christians, Jews, Israel, and didn't he think Bush and the Jews conspired to destroy the twin towers on 9/11? Don't his creepy eugenic views mimic socialist Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood (and Hillary's hero?).
I don't this guy fits into a neat definition of modern american left or right.
Posted by: jhimmi | June 12, 2009 3:20 PM
If Obama had only produced his Birth Certificate...this issue would have gone away long ago.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 12, 2009 3:39 PM
Projection. Projection.Projection. Not only is that the basic psychological fact of the right wing, at this point, it is also an important thing for us to grasp. In a very real sense, Breitbart is right, as far as he knows. You see--the right wing has insisted for a very long time that deep down everyone, liberals especially, hates people not like themselves. In this imagining white liberals *are lying* if they say they don't care about another person's skin color. Liberal men *are lying* if they say they prefer their women to be feminists and independent. etc...etc...etc... All this liberal "tolerance" is just a cover for real, deep down, natural human intolerance and spite.
The right wing has accused us of that over and over again, haven't they? Well, under that theory multiculturalism is itself a cover for natural, inborn, ethnic hatred which liberals and their multi culti allies are just too politically savvy to reveal.
But if you look out at a crowd of "lets all hug together" and "work together to end racism signs" and you assume they are a cover for black people rightfully hating whitey, and white people rightfully fearing and hating black people (but just too liberal to say so) it makes perfect sense to argue that Von Broun and lesbian black people are the same thing. He hates jews and blacks and uppity women. Lesbians, jews, and blacks (especially when they are in the combo pack) only ask for "tolerance" and acceptance as a way station on the way to admitting they hate straight white guys.
So, QED, all humans are on a journey towards acceptance of the fact that they each hate everyone else not exactly identical to themselves. Identity politics is the recognition and celebration of difference, so it must also be the recognition and celebration of hating the difference.
aimai
Posted by: aimai | June 13, 2009 12:42 PM
Von Brunn was a frequent poster on the far-rightwing hate site "Free Republic".
His postings were well accepted by the "Freepers".
His hateful screed "Obama is Missing" is signed by him, IN HIS FULL NAME, James W. von Brunn, on December 02, 2008 It is still up on that site... check it out before it's removed.
His Free Republic nick was "wannabegeek"... read his other rightwing hate posts.
Google "Obama is Missing" Type in user, wannabegeek if the link below is broken and read von Brunn's racist rants as well as the "Freepers" hateful, SUPPORTIVE responses.
This is irrefutable proof von Brunn was a racist, murdering rightwinger.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:wannabegeek/index?tab=comments;brevity=full;options=no-change
Posted by: David | June 13, 2009 1:28 PM
Really David? See i find it difficult to believe he's a rightwinger. He IS a registered DEMOCRAT after all. Check up on it. Oh he also hates the Bush administration (both of them)
Posted by: Mark | June 13, 2009 1:40 PM
Oh, they aren't going to give up trying to tar the dems with this. Jeebus on toast points, there are two directions on a line. If republicans and democrats are on some kind of line running right to left its really, really, really possible for a guy to move farther right or farther left. Hating the bushes, both of them, is a typical far far right position. That it coincides with some far left positions doesn't make it far left, or even centrist. The way you'd know is by examining what each individual and his affiliated party *would do with power* if they had it. Its not a democratic policy to *shoot up jews* but it is a nazi/white seperatist party position. And of the two parties in the US only the republicans, in their john birch incarnation, ever courted the nazis and white supremacists. The rest of us fought a fucking war against them.
aimai
Posted by: aimai | June 13, 2009 4:46 PM
The Doughy Pantload makes his money throwing red-meat to the base. Do you think he would want his audience to start questioning their current dietary habits?
Hell, he might then actually have to work for a living and do things like undertake minimal research for his books.
Posted by: angulimala | June 13, 2009 7:13 PM
Left wing, right wing whatever - but I'm pretty sure our man von Brunn would be pretty well at home with the stuff you see here: http://zombietime.com/hall_of_shame
Posted by: binkless | June 14, 2009 5:35 PM