Nearly four years ago, Newsweek—then edited by Jon Meacham—gave a cover to David Frum, where he inveighed against the nihilism of anti-Obama Republicans. Conservatives laughed it off. What did David Frum know about them, really? What would it do to Republicans if they compromised instead of opposing Barack Obama?
Today, Newsweek has basically the same story, only written by conservative radio host Michael Medved and bolstered by years of conservative attacks on the president—which didn’t win them the election. Medved warns that Republicans have been driven “blind,” unable and unwilling to negotiate wins anymore, because too many believe that a “theory of Obama’s destroy-America agenda links to his father’s undeniable anti-colonialist and Third World socialist outlook.”
[T]hat blindness stems from the lingering fear that any perceived success for Obama involves inevitable harm to America’s prospects for prosperity, because the president yearns to crash the economy as step one of imposing a new socialist system. Abandoning this delusion will not only allow the GOP to improve its political prospects but will foster a more realistic and constructive role in governance.
And yes, it’s strange that this is presented as breaking news. Keep in mind, though, some of the theories that girded anti-Obama campaigns in 2012. He’d have “more flexibility” if he won again. He’d ban guns (the NRA came up with that one). He’d abolish America’s nukes. Dinesh D’Souza’s 2016, a serious hit at the box office, theorized that Obama was purposefully weakening the United States to bring it in line with poor countries.
