On Feb 19, 2010, at 10:25 AM, Julio Huato quoted John Cassidy:
> Not all Americans are subject to this unfortunate mental condition, of
> course. Many, perhaps most, of our citizens are pragmatic,
> open-minded, and justifiably proud of the nation’s cultural and ethnic
> diversity. But at any period of time, there is a certain segment of
> the population—a quarter, perhaps—that provides fertile ground for
> what Richard Hofstadter, back in 1964, called the “paranoid style” of
> American politics, which trades in “heated exaggeration,
> suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.”
Everyone who think there's something frighteningly new about the TPers should really pick up this book. I know leftists are supposed to hate Hofstadter - if Jesse Lemisch is watching this is his cue - but really, this nonsense has very deep roots.
Doug