new book examines the political lunatic fringe

If you think you've seen the word Wingnut used before, it may be because Peter Jackson calls his production company Wingnut Films. But here a Wingnut means someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of the political spectrum - the professional partisans and the unhinged activists, the hardcore haters and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They’re the people who always try to divide us instead of unite us.

This book deals with the USA, which as you might expect, contains a lot more of them than anywhere else in the world. So it should make for an entertaining read? Yes, but a bit scarey too.

The US Republican Party's core constituency consists of those who hate government and taxes and love guns. The wealthier also like plenty to be spent on police and militia to protect their property. But the party also attracts more than its fair share of bigots and crackpots, who often are something of an embarrassement to the party heirachy worried about losing support from the middle ground which they need more.

However, according to a recent Harris poll, 57% of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim; 45% think he was not born in the United States; 45% think he is the "domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of"; 51% think he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government, and 24% think he may be the Antichrist. Wow ... that can't all be due to the party's Fox News channel.

Wingnuts looks at the outbreak of extremism in the opening years of the Obama administration – from the unprecedented government spending that spurred the Tea-Party protests to the onset of Obama Derangement Syndrome. John Avlon explains how hate-fueled rumors take hold (one section is called “How Obama Became Hitler, a Communist and the Antichrist”), looks at the ‘hunt for heretics’ that is taking place inside both parties and details the rise of hyper-partisan media. Avlon profiles preachers who are praying for the president’s death, goes inside the growing “Hatriot” movement and parallels the “Birthers” and the “9/11 Truthers.” The book compares current merchants of political paranoia with past fear-mongers and finds that divisive demagogues have sold this snake oil before. But the two parties’ increased polarisation and the echo-chamber of the Internet are helping the fringe blur with the base, making the Wingnuts more powerful than ever before.

Avlon asserts that centrists need to stand up to the extremes on both sides and declare their independence. The book ends on a hopeful note – the conclusion is “How to Take America Back from the Lunatic Fringe.”