This one was practically invented for our amusement. Observe (and again, indulge the use of the word "soccer"):



Yet as soccer has grabbed the spotlight, it has also attracted the scorn of nativists on the right, who see the growing attention being paid to it as a byproduct of some conspiratorial leftist plot or the result of insidious foreign influences. Fox News host Glenn Beck ranted, "I hate it so much, probably because the rest of the world likes it so much."... ...Matthew Philbin on the conservative site NewsBusters asserted, "The liberal media have always been uncomfortable with 'American exceptionalism' -- the belief that the United States is unique among nations, a leader and a force for good. And they are no happier with America's rejection of soccer than with its rejection of socialism." Media Research Center's Dan Gainor asserted that "the left is pushing it in schools across the country." Guest host Mark Belling on the Rush Limbaugh Show added, "They're force-feeding this down our throats." Beck blustered, "It doesn't matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn't matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn't matter how many bars open early, it doesn't matter how many beer commercials they run, we don't want the World Cup, we don't like the World Cup, we don't like soccer, we want nothing to do with it. ... They continually try to jam it down our throat."

As this blog goes on to note, Rupert Murdoch is by definition a socialist since the Fox Soccer Channel is central to this whole conspiracy.

Here's more from Beck:

Beck said, "Barack Obama's policies are the World Cup. Their policies, his policies are the World Cup of political thought..."The rest of the world like Barack Obama's policies. We do not, and I'm cool with that. If you want Barack Obama's policies or the World Cup in your country have at it. I don't hate you. I don't understand you, but I don't hate you….I believe that everything you need to know about Barack Obama's policies can be explained by the World Cup… Congratulations to Barack Obama and his polices that will have as much success as the World Cup in America. Go try those polices someplace else. They'll be wildly successful."

Now some of you will say, ah, Tomasky, they're just doing this for ratings, don't get your knickers in a twist. Well, sure, maybe they are to some extent.

But the interesting thing here is that it's exactly the same style of argument they use for everything. Insuring all your citizens is the moral equivalent of soccer, since it's foreign, and one heard precisely the same kind of rhetoric from these hyenas during the healthcare debate.

There are two choices here, either they mean it or they don't. If they mean it, they're out of their minds. If they don't, then they're just a bunch of liars or hypocrites. I doubt very much, for example, that conservative parents in America are yanking their little children out of their soccer games any more than conservative senior citizens are refusing to cash their Social Security checks. Either way it isn't pretty. And this is the madness we live with, folks.

