Conor Friedersdorf defends the grassroots on the right:
Unlike some in the media, I don’t regard the grassroots on the right as
uniquely insane. I’ve done enough reporting at that level to know that
most Americans on the right and left are reasonable people acting in
good faith. The right’s fringe problem at this moment in time is one
that elites have created as much as any crazy fringe righty. Outfits
like Fox News, people like Glenn Beck, talk radio hosts like Rush
Limbaugh — these outfits deliberately play on the worst impulses of the
conservative base, stoking their paranoia and misleading them about
reality, all for the sake of bigger audiences and greater revenues.
That ought to outrage anyone who actually respects the grassroots, and
has their best interests at heart.