This essay on the attempt by the right wing to link mainstream environmentalism and terrorism deserves a close reading. In case it seems extreme to associate khaki-wearing Audubon lobbyists with threats to domestic security, be aware that a conservative legislative thinktank has produced a model bill to stop "animal and ecological terrorism."
"The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act (AETA) creates penalties for persons encouraging, financing, assisting or engaged in acts of animal and ecological terrorism."
What liberals and their allies in the environmentalist wacko movement fail to understand is: their message has gotten out. Their anti-capitalist, socialist, gloom-and-doom, fear-based, lunatic ravings have been amplified -- and Americans understand exactly who they are, and what they're about. As the "Mr. Big" of the vast right-wing conspiracy, I am proud, ladies and gentlemen, to play a major part in the exposé leading to their depression.
- Rush Limbaugh April 25, 2005
Currently, about 20 million people tune in to Rush Limbaugh every week. His lingo is now conservative lingua franca. Limbaugh figured out that if you repeat your best lines -- e.g. "environmentalist wackos" -- often enough, they become more than just funny catchphrases; they become a reconfiguration of reality and a call to arms. In his world (and it's a world in which a lot of people live), you can't be an environmentalist and escape wacko-ism.
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/07/08/kavanagh/