The history of crazy in America . . .

Rich Perlstein: In America, Crazy is a Prexisting Condition

. . . So the birthers, the anti-tax tea-partiers, the town hall hecklers -- theseare "either" the genuine grass roots or evil conspirators staging scenes forYouTube? The quiver on the lips of the man pushing the wheelchair, the crazed risk of carrying a pistol around a president -- too heartfelt to be an act. The lockstep strangeness of the mad lies on the protesters' signs -- too uniform to be spontaneous. They are both. If you don't understand that any moment of genuine political change always produces both, you can't understand America, where the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and where elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests. . .

Good article. It made me grateful that stuff like this isn't taught over the pulpit in General Conference any more (Sorry about the cheezy source. lds.org only has archives back to the late '70s).