Seacoast History Blog #63
August 21, 2009

Rep. Barney Frank got it right when he dismissed another crazy healthcare protestor in Dartmouth, MA this week. Comparing President Obama to Hitler, she asked Mr. Frank: "Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy?’’ Exhausted with the sheer stupidity of the question, he shot back, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?’’ A Fox News commentator, unwilling even to credit the Democrat with a solid comeback, suggested that Frank was so well prepared, that the unidentified woman must have been planted in the crowd by Liberals to make the opposition look stupid. But the "birthers" and anti-healthcare nuts need no help in that department. (Continued below)

As a person who makes a living reading very old newspapers, I have to wonder what this summer will look like to historians 100 years from now. Or worse, based on the way the insanity is ramping up, whether we’ll make it beyond the coming Culture Wars.

People who don’t know anything about history are using history as their primary argument in a new war of words so powerfully stupid that it makes everyone crazy. These are people who can morph Obama, Hitler, and The Joker into a poster and think it makes sense. They read their angry proclamations like Cliff Notes, not knowing anything about real Nazis, healthcare, Democracy or even Batman. I just bought a book on that very topic by a Canadian scholar, and will report when I finish reading it. Meanwhile, I can only quote Barney Frank who refused to debate the loony saying:

"Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.’’

I should talk. I spent last night flipping channels. During prime time I watched a two-hour Fox special on "Octomom", caught dancing transvestites on America’s Got Talent and laughed out loud as people got knocked around and dumped in the mud on a summer game show called Wipeout. Sure, I listen to NPR and write history books on the side, but I can feel the dumbing down disease crawling toward my vitals. I used to think the movie "Idiocracy" was fiction. Now I’m not sure.

So what planet do I spend most of my time on? I’d have to say Planet New Hampshire. But the historians of the future will scratch their heads (if they still have heads) when they read the headlines from the Granite State today. To those who think NH is immune from the craziness, I submit for your approval, the New Hampshire headlines that popped up on Google News:

(1) Drunk man mows neighbor's lawn
(2) NH man charged with shoving girl in clothes dryer
(3) Too many bear showing up in Bethlehem
(4) Man 80 bikes from Ore to NH
(5) NH liquor industry celebrates anniversary
(6) Squirrel causes power outage in four towns
(7) NH serves up world's largest cupcake

And don’t forget that it was right here in Portsmouth that a nutjob thought it would be clever to bring a loaded gun to a public rally. Now nutjobs are bringing firearms to town meetings across the nation. It could not be clearer. This is not a protest against better healthcare. It’s too crazy for that. It is a protest against culture. People who think we think they’re stupid are fighting back. And it’s working. I feel stupider already.

This is the summer of our American discontent. People who are angry for any reason, especially right wing conservatives, have joined forces with people who are as dumb as dining room tables. These millions are reading the flashcards shipped out daily on conservative hate media. They are scared that America is changing or they are mad that life has done them wrong. They plan to set things right before Batman and Hitler take over the world again. Hopefully the New Hampshire effect is merely temporary, caused by a combination of the humidity, suntan lotion fumes and solar flares. If not, then those of us who want universal health care should buy property in Nova Scotia quickly before the Culture Wars come. With luck, Barney Frank will move North and become the leader of our new planet.

Copyright © J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved.