Article on Alex Jones

Over at the New Republic.

But it’s really only since Barack Obama’s election, when Jones turned the full force of his apocalyptic imagination toward the new president, that his ideas have found purchase in the conservative mainstream. Several Republican officeholders, from state representatives to congressmen, have appeared on his program to trade wild theories about Obama. Glenn Beck has brought his fear-mongering about the New World Order to network television, and an online Fox News show collaborated with him on a joint broadcast.

To be sure, sundry leftists, as well as some Hollywood types, appear on Jones’s show, as well. Dennis Kucinich and Noam Chomsky have both been on. It’s where actor Charlie Sheen goes to spout his 9/11 Truth theories. But left-wing craziness tends to stay sequestered on the fringes of politics, while the right-wing fringe increasingly is the Republican mainstream. According to a recent Public Policy Polling survey, only 37 percent of Republicans believe that Obama was born in the United States. Jones has become politically salient because much of the right is as unhinged as he is.

I think she's right about how unhinged parts of the right are currently (the Birther nonsense is every bit as stupid as 9-11 nuttery), but I doubt that Alex himself will get much purchase because his past is too well known. Judge Andrew Napolitano deserves to get smacked down for referring to "the great Alex Jones" on the simulcast he did with the Profit of Doom, and any GOP politicos should get the same treatment, although I note that despite the comment about several Republican officeholders appearing on his show, the big name (aside from Ron Paul) that she mentions is Texas GOP congressman Louie Gohmert.

She doesn't mention some of the most offensive stuff that Jones believes; on one show he talked about how all the Mexicans in the US are just waiting for the orders to kill all us gringos.

Hat Tip: Cartman in the comments section.