In the middle of his discussion in the New York Times, if that?s the word, of the NY 23 situation, Frank Rich had this to say:

The same could be said of Beck, Palin and their acolytes. Though they constantly liken the president to various totalitarian dictators, it is they who are re-enacting Stalinism in full purge mode.

Reason?s Matt Welch responds:

For those of you keeping metaphorical score at home: Stalin's Great Purge (just to name his most famous one) included roughly 1,000 executions a day, over two years. The alleged Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin purge, meanwhile, has resulted...brace yourself...in a moderate Republican suspending her campaign for Congress to make way for a conservative independent. Yeah, totally the same.

Be sure, incidentally, to read the fascinating piece by Welch?s Reason colleague, Jesse Walker, (Welch links to it in his post) on ?the paranoid center.? More than a little relevant, I suspect.