Why I don't care about conservative rage

In today's New York Times, Frank Rich presents an insightful analysis of Glenn Beck, the tea-baggers, the "You Lie" representatives in Washington, and the dishonesty of the conservative movement they're fronting. Rich makes a key mistake, however, when he equates a higher volume, and increased nastiness, emanating from the pages and screens of the media with a "growing" movement on the ground. According to Rich,

The growing minority that feels disenfranchised by Washington can’t be so easily ghettoized and dismissed.

There are two fundamental mistakes that need to be addressed here. One is the word "growing" unless it's specifically defined as growing in volume or intensity. I don't believe the movement is growing, and have seen no evidence of it whatsoever. I believe it's shrinking. History has shown us that every social movement ever floated in our country grows in direct proportion to its appeal to the greatest mass of voters. The more noisy, disruptive, and nasty the debate becomes, the less chance it has to capture a majority. The tea-baggers, the values voters, the "simpler is better" Palin traditionalists, the "Obama is a fascist, socialist, racist, Nazi" group, and the anti-healthcare lunatic fringe is managing, without much opposition, to alienate their core supporters all over the map, and to further entrench their movement into the tiniest voters block imaginable. Their tires have lost traction, and they're just spinning now, generating a lot of heat, acrid smoke, and an incredible squealing noise. But their vehicle is stuck and going nowhere.

And that brings me to the other mistake Mr. Rich has made, which is the term minority. This bunch of conservatives has lost their understanding of the term "majority rules." For years the term "democracy" was bandied about by the Bush Administration to mean anti-Islam, pro-monopoly caplitalism, anti choice, pro greed, anti-poor, supporting corporate welfare, and basically Republican. But the simple fact of the matter is democracy means rule of the majority. And the majority has spoken, and their opinion of those traditional conservative pieties has been harsh. The right may wail and squawk and yell, but the majority has voted and let their wishes be known. And the more they yell and gesture and tear at their hair, the more they lose their support, and the more desperate and pitiful their cries sound. Glenn Beck, like Limbaugh before him, is a paid media clown. Foxnews is in the business of selling advertising, not shaping political ideology. The yammering right-wing political fringe is in the last throes of the temper tantrum that began sometime between Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech on the aircraft carrier and the day their party floated Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. And the more they hyperventilate and squall, the fewer people are listening.

There's a damned serious need in this country for some clear-headed conservative thinking and consensus building. Glenn Beck and the tea-baggers and the values voters and the "you lie" legislators aren't doing it, and it's a damned shame.