KY_EnviroGuy
KY_EnviroGuy's JournalGood article, thanks Pluvious. Some thoughts...
Rupert Murdoch (News Corp./Fox) and talk radio owners have known this psychology for many decades and have used it very effectively. A normal, mentally healthy and well-educated populace would have discredited their dogma from the beginning and they would not have survived. They also use additional tools such as sex appeal, sensationalism and consumerism to maintain an audience.
Our primitive brain succumbs to repetition and all the while our modern brain tries to fight that with facts, logic and reason. Makes for a discomforting, unconscious, continuous internal mental battle. Those of us on the "truth" side feel the pain. Those who are in the right-wing bubble are quite comfortable because they are not exposed to counter-facts, logic and reason.
If we could get all Congress critters that took Norquist's anti-tax pledge to take a Pro-Truth Pledge referenced in that article (and be faithful to it), we might have a functioning government again.
See: https://www.protruthpledge.org/
I am a dreamer, LOL. 
"The country is getting divided?" LOL.
Where the hell has this guy been? Great to hear this dialog, but I'm betting someone's profits are threatened.
"A frequent donor to Republican political campaigns?" You, sir, are a threat to democracy and a hypocrite.
Struggle4progress, thanks for the post and link! 
Honeycomb, a follow-up thought.
I'll bet there are well-oiled ($$$) machines behind these sites that keep track of the conspiracies and continually feed them new aspects and talking points. Perhaps foreign agents, perhaps Americans. Plenty of rogue actors around the world that want to keep us disoriented, angry and fearful.
Therefore, the everyday Bubba never has a chance to get his/her facts straight with constant streams of BS.
At a higher level, I heard many times that the Bush administration and Fox News were fed a constant diet of talking points by right-wing think tanks such as Heritage Foundation, and we can bet that continues today.
Beyond the horror of what they are doing, what pisses me off is...
that we are paying their salaries and the cost of that damned agency to usurp our Constitution and what millions have worked so hard to build for many decades.
And to top it off, as a defense, we have to privately fund groups such as ALCU and SPLC to counter these bastards.
Would love to see Sarah Huckabuck charged or somehow censored.
Our problem is three-fold as I see it:
1. We don't have enough charismatic spokespersons to which the people and the press are drawn.
2. We don't have the vast array of public media as the right does, with their talk radio stations and Faux News.
3. As others have said, we're failing to frame the issues in ways that appeal to people's base instincts, fears and desires.
In other words, we're too damn quiet, factual, rational and boring! 
Let's hammer their politicians.
I seriously doubt if many of the GOP Congress critters involve themselves in this right-wing propaganda outlet and social media conspiracy mania. I really think they isolate themselves from that, and think they are above it!
Therefore, it is up to us to let them know of our disgust for the systemic corruption of this administration, but in a factual way. We can also express our disgust toward their corporate paymasters.
Truman for me. I vaguely remember Ike.
The conversion of some 20-30% of our population to right-wing dogma and hate is complex and has taken over 40 years.
My recollection of Republicans in the early 60s is that they were made up almost entirely of the wealthy business owners and the political issue that drove them was taxes. At that time, our tax laws were much more progressive, so rich folks resented paying more. Republican politicians such as Bob Dole regularly railed against taxes and deficit spending on TV. The few Republicans I knew in my hometown in rural TN were nice, regular folks but of higher income levels such as doctors or small businessmen. I don't recall hateful rhetoric except for the systemic racism against blacks common to most all whites. We were never exposed to Hyspanics, homosexuals or foreigners. We thought people from Ohio and Florida were foreigners, LOL.
The first hateful right-wing speech I recall was from Spiro Agnew with his racist campaign in their Southern Strategy, which eventually converted much of the South (including my all Democratic area) to Republican voting. During that era, massive right-wing brainwashing had not taken off, so I think most of that could have been reversed under the right circumstances. However, the 60s brought about so much social upheaval that solidified resentment in many church-goers against progressive change, as well as hippies, rock music, etc. So, at that point, a large fraction of our populace was ripe for brainwashing. And, racism was still there but somewhat more covert.
Then, Reagan came along and had extremely high popular appeal with social conservatives and used all the right words to convert many people's thinking on social spending from good to bad, along with the familiar troupe against taxes and deficits. His time further solidified the Republican mindset in many former Democrats that were religious and social conservatives. Republican strategists such as Lee Atwater clearly saw this opportunity to permanently expand the Republican base and took the advantage. Billionaire eyes were glowing with joy.
They knew their support from this new base was shaky however, and began to do full-time maintenance on it through right-wing talk radio (mainly 70s to present) and more TV exposure from their Reagan-era elected pols. After that, aggressive talk radio characters such as Limbaugh came in to solidify the cult and in the mid-90s, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News came in to occupy much more air time but with video.
As you know, the GOP's history of success is fraught with lying, deception, racism, false use of religion, misogyny, emotional rage, instilling of unjustified fears, xenophobia, sensationalism and constant circulation of numerous conspiracy theories - in other words, appealing to human's most base instincts and our worst primitive attributes. Our populace will always harbor part or all of those characteristics to some extent, and we simply have to evolve out of those bad parts of our natures.
The other primary factors making people vulnerable to GOP dogma is poor or narrow education levels nation-wide and lack of broad social exposure in rural areas. Not much we can do about the rural limitations, but we sure as hell can work to improve our weak level of critical thinking skills by re-emphasizing the need for studies in science, math, and the arts. We also desperately need to bolster interest in American government, civics and world history. If we allow our public education system to be driven only by the needs of corporate America, we're screwed.
Enough of my rant - as you can seem I'm just as frustrated as you!
K&R - Good point!
Citizens United sure as hell made that clear, at least for Republicans.
To them, the right to be heard and the power and control you deserve is in proportion to your assets.
That IS the war we are fighting every day!
Montana, depends on the context and class.
I'm totally against teaching any part of religious theology in public schools (or publicly funded charters) which in any way could sway a child toward religion, or toward any sect.
That said, it may be necessary to include some church history and background as a part of say, World History or the History of Europe. We don't want to stifle learning about those things, such as the Crusades or the religious foundations of many of the past empires.
I am curious how this was justified in a Social Studies class, though. 
If I had to choose one thing good for America and the world.....
it would be the total collapse and destruction of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. They, and corporate funding are the legs our GOP stands on. In this age, I can hardly think of another single man that has done more damage to humanity and the planet, particularly in the USA, Europe and Australia.
Actually, he might be tied with bomb-me brothers Bush/Cheney or perhaps Putin for worst in the world, regarding overall damage.
If Sinclair Broadcasting Group (talk radio) went away too, that would be icing on the cake!
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