The Tree of Crazy Blooms in Moments of Liberal Ascendancy

WHERE THE CRAZY TREE BLOOMS.... The estimable Rick Perlstein has a terrific piece in the Washington Post, providing some historical context for the right-wing rage we're seeing today. It's ugly and it's painful, but it's not new. Perlstein explained that the "crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy."

There are quite a few branches. Republicans of the 1950s described the FDR and Truman eras as "20 years of treason." Nixon, after becoming Ike's vice president, said Republicans "found in the files a blueprint for socializing America" in the White House. Civil rights leaders were accused of being a Soviet plot. The Civil Rights Act was believed to be intended to "enslave" whites.

A prominent right-wing radio host insisted that JFK was building a political prison in Alaska to detain critics of the administration. As the president noted yesterday, when FDR proposed Social Security, the conservatives of the era not only screamed about "socialism," but told the public Roosevelt would force Americans to wear dog tags.

So what's different?