Harold Meyerson on Tucson and Right-Wing Paranoia  Washington
Post columnist Harold Meyerson writes an important column today
(1/12/11) about right-wing rhetoric and the Tucson shootings.
Meyerson's point is that discussing certain symbols–like the
Sarah Palin "cross hairs" map–makes little sense without
understanding the paranoid worldview that is advanced by right-
wing leaders and commentators like Glenn Beck. When folks like
Beck and Erick Erickson use threats of violence in discussion
flu vaccines and Census workers, it's an articulation of their
worldview.   Much of the culture and thinking of the American
right–the mainstream as well as the fringe–has descended into
paranoid suppositions about the government, the Democrats and
the president. This is not to say that the left wing doesn't
have a paranoid fringe, too. But by every available measure,
it's the right where conspiracy theories have exploded.  A
fabricated specter of impending governmental totalitarianism
haunts the right's dreams. One month a