Paul Krugman Says The Irrational Right Is No Laughing Matter
And I agree. In fact, quite a few of us have been saying almost exactly the same thing.
The key thing to understand about that rally is that it wasn’t a fringe event. It was sponsored by the House Republican leadership — in fact, it was officially billed as a G.O.P. press conference. Senior lawmakers were in attendance, and apparently had no problem with the tone of the proceedings.
Oh yeah, the dots have been connected. Not only does the GOP now own the tea party movement, they’ve embraced them. And the sad thing is they really don’t have a choice. Their fringe is busily collecting scalps, and the pure, unadulterated pleasure they derive from purging is palatable. Basically, they’d rather purge than win – as demonstrated by NY-23. This latest tea party/press conference strikes me as the point of no return.
The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.
All of this makes me uneasy, and has for quite some time. And while both parties have always had their fringe base, what’s happening in the GOP is unprecedented. The far right has taken over, and I’m afraid it’s too late to rein them in.
What’s amusing is how much time I put into choosing the picture that appears next to this post. Do I use the crazy elephant photo? The tea party tea cup photo? Or the GOP logo. I decided on the GOP logo, since there really isn’t any difference between the three anymore.
Tags: Republicans
Good post, Pandora. You’re right that the tea partiers are no longer a fringe movement. They are an integral part of the GOP. We could see that coming over the summer when their death palen-esque rhetoric started coming out of Senators and Congresspeoples.
Krugman makes a good point as to why we shouldn’t just laugh them off. We’ve always figured that there was no way they could garner enough support to become a ruling party. However, the way our government (and especially the Senate) is set up, you only have to have a majority if you actually want to do something. If all you want to do is grind everything to a halt, all you need is a handful of seats and a good basic cable propaganda arm.
In a 2 party system there is always the possibility that they will come into power. That’s why it was so alarming that someone as unqualified as Sarah Palin was their nominee for VP.
Well, that’s just it. I maintain that we are actually operating in a de facto 3 party system now. I don’t think McCain and Palin are even in the same party anymore. Take away the mainstream party support, and the teabaggers don’t win but in a few select districts. They can grab a few seats here and there, but not enough to do anything legislatively. But of course, that’s the problem — they don’t want to do anything. To them nothing IS something.
I think if they ever did get any real power somewhere, it would be the end of them. Could you imagine what a Palin presidency would have been like? She could only last 1 1/2 years as governor of freaking Alaska! How long do you think she would last as president, you know with everyone tryin to censor her by pointing out the idiocy in her statements?
That is assuming the country would actually SURVIVE a Palin administration of ANY length. Imagine someone as unbalanced and uneducated as her in a military crisis.
It’s official — there’s a “Tea Party” registering with the state of Florida.
Maybe cut-and-run Sarah can run for a half-term governorship there.
(h/t: Politico)
I’m seeing Sarah Palin and Katherine Harris jello-wrestling, for some reason…
sounds like you took some bad acid