Charles Johnson: "Why I Parted Ways With The Right".

I've seen this coming for a while now, but it's a further indication of just how alienating the American right wing currently are. Now, Charles Johnson, the man behind Little Green Footballs, a website which has long been considered amongst the most right wing on the web, has finally broken ranks because of the lunacy that he recognises in his counterparts.

He hinted recently about where his mind was:

I don’t think there is an anti-jihadist movement anymore... It’s all a bunch of kooks. I’ve watched some people who I thought were reputable, and who I trusted, hook up with racists and Nazis. I see a lot of them promoting stories and causes that I think are completely nuts.

Now, in a post entitled "Why I Parted Ways With The Right", he lays out exactly why he is deserting this particular sinking ship:

1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)

2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)

5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)

6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)

7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)

8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)

10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)

Make no mistake, Charles Johnson was a true believer; but it appears that the insane lurch to the right by the Republican party - and the fact that this lurch seems to embrace every lunatic theory that is going - has finally proven too much for Johnson to associate himself with.

I've said since Obama's election that I thought the Republican movement were heading for the kind of splits which happened within the British Labour party after the election of Thatcher. There were many who argued that Labour's problem - myself, I am ashamed to admit, among them - was that they were not left wing enough.

The problem for today's Republican party isn't even that they are making the same kind of argument people like myself were making in the eighties, their problem is that they are engaging in - and embracing - some of the nuttiest shit I have ever heard.

Johnson lays it all out and says this:

The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

I have never been a fan of Johnson or his site, so it's really saying something when the Republican party have lurched too far to the right for even him to embrace.

But I do tip my hat to him for having the honesty to admit that the current Republican party are heading "over the cliff".

The party of Malkin, Bachmann, Palin and Coulter has always been a party of lunatics, now even some of their own are beginning to recognise what has long been apparent to the rest of us.

Click here for Johnson's article.

Tags: Little Green Footballs, Republicans, nutbags