Letter: Republicans promote fear, paranoia

It didn’t start with Trump. The Republican Party has bowed to, depended on, and promoted far-right extremists and conspiracists for the past 70 years.

In the 1950s, Wisconsin’s Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy triggered a panic over the bogus commie infiltration of America.

In the 1960s, the conspiracy-obsessed John Birch Society became a fixture in Republican politics. They opposed putting fluoride in water supply with similar conspiracy beliefs as today’s anti-vaxxers and fought efforts at gun control, which they depicted as the preliminary step for a communist takeover.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Republicans courted the religious right who lumped feminists, liberals, and homosexuals together as a great threat to American families.

In the 2000s, the Republican tea party movement emerged in response to Barack Obama’s election. They claimed that Obama was a secret Muslim, born in Kenya, and that Obamacare would set up “death panels.”

Trump has overtly embraced baseless conspiracy theories. Consequently, the number of real-world events linked to them grows.

Since the 1950s, the Republican Party has consistently sought to exploit fear, paranoia, and unfounded rage. Sometimes this led to the GOP prevailing in political battles. In other instances, voters have beaten back this cynical ploy. What’s next?