Teabagger Dregs

1. At Claire McCaskill’s health care town hall: Woman has a posted that is rolled up; a photographers wonders what it is. The lady unrolls it (in a way that does NOT block the view of anyone else). Someone else sees it, takes it away from her and rips it up. The poster is of Rosa Parks.

2. Here are more antics. Remember the “tough talking” imbecile who butted his way in front of everyone pushing his wheelchair bound son? The Congressman in question offered him a one-on-one meeting; he refused!

3. Major Fail:

But most notable was one of the protesters who benefits greatly by government assistance.

Diane Campbell (pictured) of Kingston, N.H., held a sign with Mr. Obama’s face superimposed on a Nazi storm trooper, a sign, she said, that was made by her chronically ill mother.

Her mother’s hereditary autoimmune disease is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare. Her sister, Louise, was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

“Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism — that’s what’s going to happen.”

What is with these people anyway? Paul Krugman has some thoughts on the matter:

Yes, there’s a lavishly funded industry pushing these stories. But Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and all the others wouldn’t succeed without a receptive audience. So what makes that audience so receptive?

Here’s a thought: maybe we can learn something from Bernie Madoff.

How did Madoff pull off his scam? A lot of it probably involved affinity fraud: Madoff’s victims, largely affluent Jews, trusted him in large part because he seemed like one of them.

What I think is going on here, at least partly, is that the peddlers of anti-progressive lies are managing to convince a certain kind of American — white, socially conservative, etc. — that the hate-mongers are people like them; and, even more important, that progressives are Those People, people not like them.

He goes on to say that President Obama’s race is an issue, but this group of people hated President Clinton as well (and yeah, they would have hated Hillary Clinton too).

But the larger point is that this group of people will not be convinced by the evidence; we are probably wise to just make sure that they don’t injure anyone and just blow them off.