I’ve had my differences with some of the things Obama has done in office, especially in civil liberties. But the invitation his campaign extended to Republicans to launch their War on Women ™ ought to rank as one of his greatest achievements. It’s penetrating now even to the lowest-information American just how fanatical, and misogynist, and ignorant, and authoritarian, the current crop of Republicans is. And no amount of finger-pointing by Dems would have conveyed this with an ounce as much impact as the Republicans themselves trumpeting who, and what, they are.
That this happened before an election in which, in a normal year with a struggling economy, Republicans would be in good shape to seize all three branches of government, is a public service that ought to get Obama’s face on Rushmore. The people now driving the Republican bus have always been scarifying, intolerant zealots, but now a lot more people know it. I hope they continue to stand, noisily, for what they believe in, despite the temporary damage to thinking people’s sanity it entails. The more noise, the bigger the repudiation in November.