The Natives Of Fantasyland Are Restless

Michelle Bachmann, our representative from the strange and distant lands of the northern Twin Cities suburbs, is doing her darndest to hold her own in the GOP’s current auditions for its new reality series: Paranoid Island. She sees the recent passage of the Edward Kennedy Serve America Act, which expands Americorps, as a precursor to re-education camps for the nation’s gullible youth. Here’s Bachmann in her own words:

I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically-correct forums.

A decade ago, I was an Americorps volunteer for a year. In return for matching law students with pro bono opportunities, I received a monthly stipend that most people would consider a few days’ wages. I don’t remember any forced bus ride to a camp deep in the wilderness where they dressed us up in camo and blasted Clinton speeches over the loudspeakers.

Look, I’m willing to admit that many on the left said some irresponsibly daft things during the Bush years. He was no Hitler and he was not the figurehead of a shadow theocracy. But the pervasiveness of hysterical conspiracy theories like Bachmann’s among much of the conservative base is something to behold. It’s as if Obama’s election gave them permission to revel in their wildest apocalyptic fantasies; the kind fueled by too many late-night viewings of old X-Files episodes. I keep waiting for someone to launch into a rant about the black helicopters kept hidden in secret U.N. bases in Canada.

There are plenty of things to worry about in this world. But when elected officials start espousing delusional drivel, it cheapens both them and us.