There's a Comments section under each comic at GoComics.com. I originally posted this in the running comments under today's Doonesbury, which is about a Teabagger rally. But I thought I really should share it here.
Dig up a copy of Future Shock -- there's too much coming at these people too fast, too much change, too much disruption. The brain goes into a kind of survival-mode where all that information overload is dumped in favor of simple direct uncomplicated un-nuanced explanations.
These people are being led by clowns and charlatans, and some of them are saying evil stupid things, but they are mostly not evil stupid people. They are drowning in an ocean of Future and Change and, oh yeah, this terrible Reagan/Bush Economy. Stupid-simple ideas are their life preserver and willful ignorance is them holding their breath when the waves push them under.
Glenn Beck needs to be mocked (and Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter need a meaningful discussion with the business end of a Louisville Slugger) but the Teabaggers are mostly their victims. Anyone who can figure out how to rescue them back to sanity and the American Conversation will be a hero.
It's hard for me to hold onto this perspective. I see clips of some of these people talking, and I just want to start hurling rotten eggs. But they've been living on a diet of bullshit and poison, so it's no wonder they're acting sick and crazy. Fixing that is going to take a long long time.