The consensus is growing among Democrats that the Republican Party is fundamentally insane. It’s not they disagree with us on policy. It’s that they do not abide by the basic rules of debate and argument. They aren’t just impervious to logic; they actually have no use for it. Let me go back to this exchange between David Gergen and Matt Taibbi:
Gergen: You just think they’re all crazy.
Taibbi: I do.
Gergen: So you’re arguing, Matt, that 40 percent of those who voted last night are crazy?
Taibbi: I interview these people. They’re not basing their positions on the facts — they’re completely uninterested in the facts. They’re voting completely on what they see and hear on Fox News and afternoon talk radio, and that’s enough for them.
Or, look at Jon Chait discussing Republican opposition to the securing of loose nukes through the New START Treaty:
What’s so hair-pulling about it is that our security apparatus is filled with wildly expensive and/or intrusive measures that bring minimal benefit, but the one security intervention with an enormous cost-benefit ratio may get held up because you need the consent of an intransigent and largely insane party.
Or Matt Yglesias referring to Rep. Paul Ryan as a “dangerous madman.”
Worth noting that Paul Ryan is a dangerous madman, with monetary views well to the right of Milton Friedman.
Or Steve Benen taking it a step further and accusing the Republicans of going beyond crazy to outright economic sabotage.
It’s obvious that a consensus is forming that we’re not dealing with some rational force than we compromise with. Are we all wrong? Are we missing something?
