Michael Medved on Eve of Destruction Politics

Michael Medved, the movie critic and talk show host, takes on Alex Jones and other paranoids in an oped for USA Today.

While most people go about their business — working hard, enjoying their families, struggling to pay the bills and planning to celebrate the holidays — activists try to raise money or snare votes by announcing The-End-Of-American-Civilization-As-We-Know-It. (TEOACAWKI).

No wonder voters feel increasingly embarrassed to identify as either Democrats or Republicans, preferring the designation "independent" or, most likely, uninvolved — feeling understandably alienated from the desperation that sets the tone in the olitical process. Consider, for instance, Pat Buchanan's new book, Day of Reckoning following its two similarly cheerful predecessors, State of Emergency and The Death of the West). This time, "Pitchfork Pat" (who drew a paltry 0.42% in his last presidential run) ups the ante with his bald declaration "that America is indeed coming apart, decomposing, and that the likelihood of her survival as one nation through midcentury is improbable."

On the other side of the ideological Grand Canyon, feminist firebrand Naomi Wolf simultaneously promotes her book The End of America, outlining a supposed 10-step Bush administration plan to impose a fascist dictatorship. In this context, she has talked on the radio with "black helicopter" conspiracist Alex Jones, who's hawking his own gift for the season: a new videotape "proving" that international bankers are perfecting plans to liquidate 80% of humanity.

On the whole a rather interesting analysis of the paranoid politics that ties these otherwise disparate factions together.