Stop Me If You've Heard This One

John Cole:

I received the following email on one of my “conservative” email lists the other day:

"Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read 'Vote Obama, I need the money.' I laughed.

Once in the restaurant my server had on a 'Obama 08' tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference—just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need—the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I ‘ve decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient needed money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application."

A simplistic argument against socialism, right? The sort of stuff that goes directly to "Trash" in my email account. This particular fable has got some legs, though. This anonymous, fictitious, bullshit conservative story is being spread by wingnuts near and far, appearing on numerous blogs, letters to the editor, and chain emails passed from wingnut to wingnut. I did a Google search for the phrase, "Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read 'Vote Obama, I need the money.' I laughed." I got 14,000 results.

We've seen the coordination between right-wing radio and the Republicans for more than two decades now, that's nothing new. Rush says it, and a thousand idiots repeat it in truck stops, offices, bowling alleys, strip clubs, duck blinds, poorly written blogs warning of the coming Apocalypse, and letters written in crayon and addressed to the editor of the local newspaper. What's new is that now Republican presidential campaigns spew verbatim this wingnut crap that usually travels by email and fax: McCain PR flak Nicole Wallace passed along this story in an NPR interview today.

It's becoming readily apparent that if McCain loses, the Republican party will immediately declare civil war, and spend (hopefully) the next congressional session in destructive and pointless internecine warfare. The signs are already there: Republican intellectuals like Noonan and Hitchens endorsing Obama, saying that the party has lost its way; the dangerous rabble-rousing happening at Pain rallies, and Palin herself tossing her hat in the ring for 2012; the open disdain between the paleo-conservatives, the neo-cons, and the evangelicals.

Cole again:

The McCain campaign, once again, is just a symptom of the real problem- an intellectually incurious and lazy movement in the final ugly spasms of death. The McCain campaign is now, in their interviews with the press, spreading what we can all recognize as wingnut email chains.

We can all hope for a protracted civil war, the better for the rest of us to address the myriad problems facing America today. Let the wingnuts fight over the bones of the Republican party; we've got to begin rebuilding the nation for the 21st Century.