"Conservatives, please. Let's not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He is not exactly the anti-Christ, although a disturbing number of people on the Right are convinced he is"
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Horowitz is doing a kind of intramural intervention: stop the spiral, stop the mythmaking, stop turning political opposition into theology. The hook is the deliberately gaudy reference to the anti-Christ, a term so overheated it exposes the problem by caricaturing it. He’s not just arguing that Obama isn’t Satan; he’s pointing to how quickly a movement can trade strategy for psychodrama when it feels culturally cornered.
The line “Let’s not duplicate the manias of the Left” is the real payload. Horowitz is less interested in defending Obama than in defending conservatism from a self-inflicted credibility crash. He’s invoking a mirror principle: if the Right mocks the Left for hysterias, moral panics, and apocalyptic rhetoric, then borrowing that same emotional template makes conservative critique look performative rather than principled. The word “duplicate” matters because it frames paranoia as a kind of lazy reproduction, not an authentic conviction.
Contextually, the early Obama era brought a uniquely combustible mix: economic crisis, demographic change, the first Black president, and an internet ecosystem that rewarded maximalism. Horowitz’s warning reads like a bid to keep conservative opposition in the realm of policy, constitutional argument, and coalition-building instead of conspiratorial identity theater. Subtext: when you call your opponent demonic, you pre-empt persuasion, justify any tactic, and turn politics into a loyalty test. He’s policing boundaries, not of ideology, but of sanity.
The line “Let’s not duplicate the manias of the Left” is the real payload. Horowitz is less interested in defending Obama than in defending conservatism from a self-inflicted credibility crash. He’s invoking a mirror principle: if the Right mocks the Left for hysterias, moral panics, and apocalyptic rhetoric, then borrowing that same emotional template makes conservative critique look performative rather than principled. The word “duplicate” matters because it frames paranoia as a kind of lazy reproduction, not an authentic conviction.
Contextually, the early Obama era brought a uniquely combustible mix: economic crisis, demographic change, the first Black president, and an internet ecosystem that rewarded maximalism. Horowitz’s warning reads like a bid to keep conservative opposition in the realm of policy, constitutional argument, and coalition-building instead of conspiratorial identity theater. Subtext: when you call your opponent demonic, you pre-empt persuasion, justify any tactic, and turn politics into a loyalty test. He’s policing boundaries, not of ideology, but of sanity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
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