The latest episode indicative of this trend happened at Nancy Pelosi's appearance at the Netroots Nation convention, where the Minority Leader was booed for daring to criticize Edward Snowden.
In addition to the booing, there was also apparently an extended heckling by a Netroots activist named Marc Perkel:
As she spoke about the need to "balance" privacy and security, Marc Perkel, a 57-year-old California blogger who's called for Obama's impeachment over the NSA revelations yelled out: "It’s not a balance! It’s not constitutional! No secret laws!" Perkel continued to decry "secret courts," and staffers began to escort him from the room.
As security guards were dragging Perkel away. "Leave him alone!" shouted others in the audience. "No secret courts!" yelled Perkel as he moved out of the room. "No secret laws!"
If you are guessing that I looked at this Perkel character and immediately found some insane, incoherent, conspiracy-laiden, basically far-right-wing views, then you have been paying attention to what has been happening to the Far Left end of American politics in recent years.
Perkel has two blogs where his views are out there for anyone to see. And, surprise surprise... well here's a sampling:
He's against gay marriage because it could lead to people marrying their pet.
He thinks that, on balance, American black people should be thankful for slavery.
And of course, where the Far Left and Far Right meet, such as in the deranged mind of Perkel, you find insane anti-Israel hatred.
So we basically have someone who spouts positions identical to the right-wing fringe of American political discourse being lauded by people on the left-wing fringe, after an outburst at a mainstream liberal. +1 for my merger thesis.
