Stupid Politics

I saw this video originally over at the Washington Post . Megan McArdle dissects it further here.

Watch it yourselves:



I agree with Ms. McArdle that you really can't apply blame to Rand Paul for this sort of behavior by some of his supporters. I don't even know that you can say that this sort of thing is even typical of his supporters. It is pretty shocking: A woman is grabbed by the crowd and a man steps on the back of her neck (and quite clearly is told to stop by another man). At the same time, there's really no indication of what precisely the woman was doing. A lot of the context is absent.

At the same time though, I think it's indicative of a wide streak of paranoia infecting the Right and directed towards the Left and media in general.

We have Sarah Palin refusing media access, granting press conferences only when she knows the questions in advance and warning her various proteges that the press is out to get them.

We have Christine O'Donnell gladly following suit (though given her profound inabilities, I can't really blame her).

We have Joe Miller up in Alaska employing active duty members of the military as private security guards who subsequently handcuffed and threatened a journalist attempting to get access to the candidate.

And now this...

Certainly, I don't think that this necessarily augurs a wave of brownshirts or anything of the sort. However, to me it shows a political movement that is not merely in disagreement with its opponents. It shows a political movement that feels actively, physically threatened. And it lashes out.