2014-02-21/From the fringe to the Hill

title/short::From the fringe to the Hill Last April, I laid out the flight plan, showing the trajectory of these theories: they start with the off-the-wall fringe, then get picked up by more prominent far-right outlets, then Fox News, then congressional Republicans.
 * when: when posted::2014-02-21
 * author: author::Steve Benen
 * source: site::The MaddowBlog
 * topics: topic::Americonservatism topic::Dinesh D'Souza topic::conspiracy theories topic::Alex Jones
 * keywords
 * link: URL::http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-fringe-the-hill
 * title: title::From the fringe to the Hill
 * summary: It’s alarmingly common to hear congressional Republicans repeat some deeply odd conspiracy theories. But more often than not, the theories didn’t start on Capitol Hill; they just ended up there.

Now note the Dinesh D’Souza conspiracy theory. It started with Alex Jones and Drudge. It was then picked up by Limbaugh. And then Fox News. And now four members of the U.S. Senate.

It is one of the more striking differences between how the left and right deal with wild political accusations: for conservatives, strange ideas effortlessly seep into the mainstream.