Republican lawmakers, thought leaders, and entertainers can be divided loosely into three groups: assholes, the crazy, and the stupid, although there can be considerable overlap. And we can also create subsets for these groups. The largest group, by far, is the assholes. These are people who are extremely selfish, lack empathy, and often delight is saying and doing things just to be mean or to hurt other people’s feelings. They aren’t crazy or stupid, however, and they are often paid quite handsomely to be jerks. They will often parrot stupid and crazy things, but always very self-consciously, not actually believing what they are saying. Here are some typical examples:
ASSHOLES
Lawmaker: Ted Cruz
Thought Leader: Charles Krauthammer
Entertainer: Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter
Related, but much less self-conscious, are the people who are truly stupid. They will spout many things that they know to be untrue, but they have a tendency to internalize many Republican talking points and actually begin to believe them. They aren’t quite crazy, but their grip on reality is not very tight, either.
THE STUPID
Lawmaker: Rand Paul, Jim Inhofe
Thought Leaders: Peggy Noonan, Erick Erickson
Entertainers: Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity
Then we have the people who are basically unhinged. They may have ludicrous religious beliefs or they may fall for every conspiracy theory in the book, or they may just have no idea what in the hell is going on.
THE CRAZY
Lawmakers: Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Louis Gohmert, pretty much the whole Georgia delegation.
Thought Leaders: None
Entertainers: Donald Trump
There are other people who are hard to classify. For example, neo-cons like Bill Kristol, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte are not stupid, and they seem to have their senses about them. Yet, their policies are so destructive that we almost have to define them as crazy. Surely, anyone who follows their advice expecting good results is crazy. I think we can create a subgroup for these folks.
EVIL CRAZY ASSHOLES
Lawmakers: Dick Cheney, John McCain, Joe Lieberman
Thought Leaders: Bill Kristol, Jennifer Rubin
Entertainers: Dennis Miller
What’s almost completely missing is the old school Republican statesman who isn’t stupid, isn’t crazy, and isn’t enough of an asshole to disregard the needs of the poor or concerns about the environment or the importance of international organizations and collective security. Those folks have been driven out of the modern GOP.
So, where do you think various well-known Republicans belong in these classifications?
