Ghosts of Paranoia Past : William A. Wirt (Bill the Teacher?) [View All]

What surprises me most about the summer of distemper now thankfully drawing to a close isn't its baroque conspiracy theories, extreme political opportunism and public displays of weepy hysteria, so much as the idea that these are somehow unprecedented.

To me they're merely the latest examples of a phenomenon that might be called Wirtism.

If you find the term unfamiliar, that's because I just coined it to honor the memory of William A. Wirt. Wirt's day in the sun came back in 1934, when the obscure Midwestern blowhard placed himself at the center of a political maelstrom by "discovering" a plot by members of Franklin Roosevelt's Brain Trust to launch a Bolshevik takeover of the United States.

That Wirt's yarn was transparently absurd didn't keep it from being taken seriously on the front pages of newspapers coast to coast, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. He gave speeches, wrote a book and went to Washington to give personal testimony at a standing-room-only congressional hearing.

If that reminds you of the overly solicitous treatment given by the press, cable news programs and Republican office holders to purveyors of such lurid claptrap as the Obama birth certificate story or the fantasy of healthcare "death panels," now you know why it pays to study history...

Read the rest of the article here http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hiltzik30-2009aug30,0,5411860.column

There seems to be nothing terribly new about astroturfing, hysteria and "bolshevik plots." Hell, its actually an oldie but goodie, this guy was trying it in 1934!