A Brief History of Wingnuts in America; From George Washington to Woodstock

In this exclusive excerpt from the new edition of Wingnuts, author John Avlon reminds us that paranoid extremism is nothing new in American politics.

If you’re disgusted by the unhinged hyper-partisanship that distorts our political debates beyond reason, here’s some good news – we’ve overcome these forces before.

American political history has been marked by periodic eruptions of the “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” that Richard Hofstadter famously characterized as “the paranoid style in American politics.” Wingnuts have masqueraded under different names and causes at different times, but they have always been committed to an “us against them” framing of domestic debates while inflaming group hatred in the name of politics and alleged principle. They prey on fear and ignorance.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/17/a-brief-history-of-wingnuts-in-america-from-george-washington-to-woodstock.html