In a 1964 article in Harpers' Magazine, Hofstadter wrote of "The Paranoid Style of American Politics." He said "American politics has often been an arena for angry minds." His article shows how from even the end of the 18th century in America the elite class of wealthy men who dominated the leadership of the United States to the present day protected their economically privileged status against the have-nots below them by using the fear of such people as Masons, or Catholics as scapegoats to cover up their own economically advantageous position. Even Aaron Burr's conspiracy to carve out an empire for himself in Louisiana was alleged to have been a Masonic plot.
It is time to bring this out in the open and condemn those from either end of the political spectrum who use this technique.
It is time to banish this style of political rhetoric, for it is adopted deliberately to obscure the real political issues of our day.