Right Wing Paranoia has long American pedigree and history

I came upon an interesting blog post today: (1)

 It was entitled, "Nothing new under the sun"  and it featured a piece from Harper's Bazaar, by Richard Hofstadter,  called "The Paranoid Style in Politics",   about the growing feeling of alienation and anger on the right.  The thing is,  this was published in 1964,  and made references to the earlier paranoia of American conservatives in 1855.    

It would appear that there is a typology in politics:  The type of the liberal,  the rational, the paranoid, and the conspiracy buff.  

Certain personality types are partisan to an extreme degree.  There were "radicals"  in prior decades whose ideas have become mainstreamed.  A certain amount of neurosis and suspicious cynicism , as the great psychologist William James asserted,  acts as a necessary brake in American culture and politics.  However,  movements like the Birthers,  who are barking up the wrong tree entirely,  seem to serve only to annoy and to irritate.  

As Hofstadter points out in his 1964 essay,  social theorists like Daniel Bell came to the conclusion that cosmopolitans and intellectuals threaten the solid American homesteaders and their values.  Hence,  the 2004 divide of "Metros vs Retros":  Nothing new under the sun is an understatement.   I would think there might be a blend of the two forming at this juncture :  Certainly I find both traits within myself, and have seen this fusion in others.  I do believe that the paranoia of certain right wing factions,  stirred up by the likes of radio pundits and those who are out to exploit,  are making the birthing process - to whatever degree we are on the brink of a new era of true Change with Barack Obama  -  far more painful and protracted than it need be.  This quote which closes  Hopstadter's essay  is apt here as well:

The thing which Hofstadter forgot ,  and which is abundantly clear now,  is that these last would like us to be double-sufferers as well, and inflict their fantasies onto the cultural and political screen with much force. 

(1) http://gecon.blogspot.com/2009/08/theres-nothing-new-under-sun.html