In 1928, anti-Catholics supporting Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover against Democrat Al Smith, who was Roman Catholic, said if Smith were to be elected, the Statue of Liberty would be re-named Our Lady of the Harbor.

That same low level of pandering to the dumbest people in America was exhibited by a denizen of the Tea Party on the eve of Obama’s visit to Arizona. This character issued a fake picture on the Web of Obama dressed up as a Nazi.

Usually Tea Party types label Obama as a socialist or communist. But some enterprising souls call him a communist and Nazi at the same time. That’s interesting. Real Communists and Nazis have a history of trying to kill each other off. But, then, the dumbing down of America seems to have hit the Right first.

Now I don’t know if this particular denizen of the Tea Party really believes this or not or if he’s just blowing smoke. I tend to chalk it up to what radical satirist Paul Krassner termed, “the escalation of bullshit in this country.”

If this particular denizen really believed he was suffering under totalitarian rule, what does he propose to do about it? Other than shooting off his mouth, I mean.

The Tea Party is fond of talking about “revolution” but talk is all it is. Their escalating bullshit has as much chance of overthrowing the Oligarchy as I have of porking Sarah Palin once her husband and boyfriend are through.

Some of the younger & hardier Tea Baggers might actually join a militia and play around with paint guns and the like. But, again, it amounts to little more than childish games. Just something to kill time while waiting for a Republican comeback.

If you’re a real revolutionary, you must be prepared to split immediately on 30 seconds notice. You don’t know anyone in the org except those in your cell. You know those only by party names. And so it goes.

But that’s a skeleton of a Leninist combat org. The American Right’s variant of a ‘revolutionary org’ is more like The Minutemen of the 1960s. As one former member described it: “I never saw so many blabber mouths, ding-a-lings and outright fuck-ups in my life.”

The American Right is still made up of people who don’t think they’ll really be dispossessed. Until that very real possibility dawns on them, they won’t be serious. All hat and no cattle.