I agree. I’m somewhat surprised to discover that the conspiracy swamp on the internet isn’t really much different, except in reach, to the little groups and publications which have existed for a long time.
This has been one of the more shocking discoveries for me as well. I remember the mom of one of my friends back in the 70s chain smoking Parliaments in her basement and reading through the stacks of National Enquirers and god knows whatever else she'd acquired and thinking "yikes." But it never occurred to me that the things she was reading were part of a network of political actors with the capacity to gather their forces to have real political impact. That's why someone like Huss, who was able to pull it off given the state of the media in 1978-9, was so impressive. But in our current social media age with no gatekeepers, it's much easier for far right groups to coordinate their efforts across geographical and social space to pursue their conspiracy-based political projects. The main continuity with Huss, to my mind, is that they are still targeting the GOP as the institutional mechanism capable of translating their wackadoodle political visions into legislative reality. The discontinuity is that the GOP no longer has many people in positions of power and authority who, like Hatfield, Packwood, or McCall, had the clarity and guts to say "you people are nuts and we don't want to have anything to do with you."
I think it’s the conflict between the MAGAs and the sane Republicans which is currently tearing the GOP apart. When a Republican impeachment in Texas features repeated demands of “Are you a RINO?” You can really see the effect.
I get the sense that what happened to the OR GOP beginning in the 80s and basically ending by the 2000s has started happening everywhere. That is, the more moderate folks just eventually gave up because they didn't have the energy or organization to compete with the very fired up extremists around issues like guns, abortion, and sexuality. Once those extremists came to occupy the majority of spots at the county level organizations, it became nearly impossible for more level-headed voices to prevail. The problem was that the extremists spoke for only a portion of traditional GOP voters, and they had little interest in or ability to speak to those who weren't already with them 100%.
Great research! Much appreciated!
I agree. I’m somewhat surprised to discover that the conspiracy swamp on the internet isn’t really much different, except in reach, to the little groups and publications which have existed for a long time.
This has been one of the more shocking discoveries for me as well. I remember the mom of one of my friends back in the 70s chain smoking Parliaments in her basement and reading through the stacks of National Enquirers and god knows whatever else she'd acquired and thinking "yikes." But it never occurred to me that the things she was reading were part of a network of political actors with the capacity to gather their forces to have real political impact. That's why someone like Huss, who was able to pull it off given the state of the media in 1978-9, was so impressive. But in our current social media age with no gatekeepers, it's much easier for far right groups to coordinate their efforts across geographical and social space to pursue their conspiracy-based political projects. The main continuity with Huss, to my mind, is that they are still targeting the GOP as the institutional mechanism capable of translating their wackadoodle political visions into legislative reality. The discontinuity is that the GOP no longer has many people in positions of power and authority who, like Hatfield, Packwood, or McCall, had the clarity and guts to say "you people are nuts and we don't want to have anything to do with you."
I think it’s the conflict between the MAGAs and the sane Republicans which is currently tearing the GOP apart. When a Republican impeachment in Texas features repeated demands of “Are you a RINO?” You can really see the effect.
I get the sense that what happened to the OR GOP beginning in the 80s and basically ending by the 2000s has started happening everywhere. That is, the more moderate folks just eventually gave up because they didn't have the energy or organization to compete with the very fired up extremists around issues like guns, abortion, and sexuality. Once those extremists came to occupy the majority of spots at the county level organizations, it became nearly impossible for more level-headed voices to prevail. The problem was that the extremists spoke for only a portion of traditional GOP voters, and they had little interest in or ability to speak to those who weren't already with them 100%.