Today it is possible for me to just go ahead and sum this up as “what Josh Marshall said.”
Looking back on more than a decade of blogging, I’ve really only had two significant errors of analysis. The first was specific, which was a very bad prediction about the results of the 2014 midterms. The second was more systemic, and it can basically be described as a failure to imagine that the Republicans are worse and can get worse than they presently seemed.
I eventually learned that you will be wrong if you give them any credit for good faith, expect any consistency, or believe that they will adhere to agreements or maintain long-established norms of behavior.
They just won’t.
I still believe that John McCain ripped a tear in the fabric of the universe and let some alien form of Stupid arrive here on our planet when he gave us Sarah Palin.
But I didn’t appreciate until later just how much of the groundwork had been laid for that by the behavior of the Bush administration and their complete disregard for “reality-based” thinking.
To put it in a formula, however bad you think the Conservative Movement is, they’re actually worse. And they’ll make that clear to you shortly.
