We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side, because they believe they should have the power to tell you what to do.
— Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum in 2012
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Here is a gem I simply couldn’t resist sharing:
Earlier this month, Breitbart News and assorted other right-wing entities (click here to donate) held the annual South Carolina National Security Action Summit in Columbia.
Among the topics: “The Threat from Sharia and the Global Jihad Movement,” “Border Insecurity and Illegal Immigration,” and “The Hollowing Out of America’s Military.” You get the picture.
Among the speakers: wingnut luminaries John Bolton, Frank Gaffney, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Phyllis Schlafly, and Rick Santorum.
During a Q&A session with Santorum, a woman in the audience who identified herself as a retired teacher began to ask a question. The question evolved into a long, stream-of-consciousness tirade.
In it, she wove a tapestry of conservative talking points, old and new — the stuff served up non-stop on right-wing radio, on Fox News, and in the cesspool of right-wing paranoia and vitriol that festers online.
Eventually, she was cut short when an authority figure wrested the microphone from her hands.
As the woman rambled toward a question, Santorum stood at the podium, nodding solemnly and appearing to look interested (a necessary skill in his line of work).
When he finally replied, he began by intoning, “I’m not a sitting member of the Senate, so I’m not taking blame for any of that stuff.”
Then he sidestepped the woman’s flurry of crazy crapola and proceeded to denounce the President’s executive order on immigration.
“As you mentioned, the word tyrant comes to mind,” he said. Then he engaged his mental autopilot and launched into a stump speech.
To get the full flavor of the poor, deranged woman’s rant, here is the video.
And here is the transcript.
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Senator Santorum, thank you for being here. I’m Virginia Ellisor, a retired school teacher, lifelong political activist, and lifelong resident of South Carolina.
I’ll ask you the same question I asked Senator Cruz. And, uh, I’ll preface it by saying — Michele Bachman, and I think it was King, said that Boehner made a deal —
My question is on defending this country. Thank you for what you do for national security. I’m concerned about sealing these borders and protecting the United States. I’ve fought that battle all my life. And I’m losing, and it’s because I’m not getting help from my Congress.
And anyway, uh, Michele Bachmann and King, in an interview on one station, said that Boehner made a deal with Obama back in September to be on board with his executive amnesty.
The American people put Republicans back in office in the House and the Senate, and the two things we asked y’all to do was shut down Obama’s executive amnesty and shut down Obamacare. And you didn’t. You let us down on both issues.
Why is the Congress rolling over and letting this communist dictator destroy my country? Y’all know what he is, and I know what he is. I want him out of the White House. He’s not a citizen. He could’ve been removed a long time ago.
Larry Cleveland’s the one who got the judge to say that the executive amnesty is illegal. Everything he does is illegal. He’s trying to destroy the United States. The Congress knows this. What kind of games is the Congress of the United States playing with the citizens of the United States?
Y’all need to work for us, not for the lobbyists that pay your salaries. Get on board. Well, let’s stop all this and get — save America. You know, what’s going on Senator Santorum? Where do we go from here?
Ted told me I’ve got to wait now till the next election. I don’t think the country will be around for the next election.
Obama tried to blow up a nuke in Charleston a few months ago, and the three admirals and generals —
He has — he has totally destroyed our military. He has fired all the generals and all the admirals that said they wouldn’t fire on the American people if they asked ’em to do so — if he wanted to take the guns away from ’em.
This man is a communist dictator. We need him out of that White House now. And the Congress of the United States is the only one — we’ve lost our Congress. We’ve lost our executive.
(Unidentified man seizes microphone. Santorum gets to talk.)
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That moment was an astounding peek behind the curtain at lunatic right-wingers in their natural habitat.
The woman dutifully covered the talking points she has been fed, using the proper code words — “sealing the borders, “executive amnesty,” “Obamacare,” “communist dictator” — that make the talking points easy to enumerate.
The looniest of the woman’s accusations was, of course, about a failed plot by President Obama to “blow up a nuke in Charleston” and the firing of some admirals and generals.
How, you may ask, did this woman come to believe that Barack Obama planned to incinerate Charleston? Did the concept spontaneously coalesce in her brain as she slept?
No. She heard it from lunatic right-winger Alex Jones on his website Infowars.com.
What the crazies do in their wackadoodle world, I don’t pretend to know. But I’m aware that a few years ago, they dreamed up some kind of “false flag” conspiracy wherein Obama planned to sacrifice Charleston and blame it on Russia, or Iran, or somebody.
As for the generals and admirals, Obama supposedly fired them in a rage because they detonated the nuke too far out to sea, and Charleston survived.
Sometimes, when I hear a knee-slapper like that, I go to Snopes.com to get more details. The Snopes entry on this particular conspiracy traces its origin back to 2013.
Rick Santorum and Alex Jones and their ilk are professional shills. They excel at scaring, then manipulating, then fleecing people who are frightened and gullible, like the unstable lady in Charleston.
If people like her were not kept fearful and distracted, they might notice that those same Republicans they put in office to “shut down Obama’s executive amnesty and shut down Obamacare” are working hard to shut down their Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
The Republicans plot to keep people from voting. They vote to slash billions in spending on programs that help the poor and the middle class, then vote to give billions in tax breaks to their greedy corporate donors.
With no shame whatsoever, they dismiss and deny scientific fact. They are hell-bent on austerity, when using the country’s resources judiciously would solve real problems and help millions of genuinely needy people.
Obama isn’t your enemy, lady. The Republicans are.
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