Digby of Salon wonders how the Tea Party came to hate the military so much.  It is a stark contrast from the traditional right-wing support of an ever-expanding military.  Remember when it was unpatriotic to oppose continual increases in defense spending or to question whether the U.S. should be sending troops to fight overseas.  These folks couldn’t fall over themselves fast enough to support W. Bush’s foolish wars and the creation of a big brother surveillance state, and call out anyone who opposed that as practically a traitor.  “You’re either for us or against us.”  Ask yourself, what has changed?

You have probably heard these lyrics at least a thousand times at televised Republican rallies:

Those of course are the words to “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood, a song that could almost be described as the conservative national anthem. It perfectly expresses the patriotism of the Real American, the man and woman who love their country without reservation, the ones who boldly invite dissenters to “love it or leave it” and attack anyone who would dare besmirch the red, white and blue. These colors don’t run, hippie…

But something has changed. In fact, it appears that the right wing in this country has become downright hostile to the one government institution they heretofore had defended with every fiber of their being: the military. This week, members of the conservative fringe, having apparently become convinced that the army is holding a large training exercise in the American southwest in order to prepare the ground for a federal government takeover of Texas, are themselves metaphorically spitting in the face of U.S. soldiers:

“It’s the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany: You get the people used to the troops on the street, the appearance of uniformed troops and the militarization of the police,” Bastrop resident Bob Wells told the Statesman after the meeting. “They’re gathering intelligence. That’s what they’re doing. And they’re moving logistics in place for martial law. That’s my feeling. Now, I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong. I hope I’m a ‘conspiracy theorist.’”

Greg Abbott must be wondering how to quell the shit storm of adverse media coverage he has created by kowtowing to lunatics such as these.