The Party of Stupid

Paul Krugman:

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

That's it. It's been obvious ever since Bush took power, the guy you wanted to have a beer with. 9/11 was then the watershed moment. National insanity as response and policy was suddenly valid and easy to exploit.

Nothing's worked since. But it didn't matter to them. As long as you can kick the can down the road and live today like a crazy person, go for it. All power's worth having just to muck things up for everyone else. How precisely this translates into a happier life for themselves is not crystal clear, since you have to guess there are children and grandchildren even in their families.

But we've had faked science, doctored reports, the Constitution in the shredder, zero accountability, justice perverted, torture, us against the world, a government of stunts, the politics of personal destruction, secrecy, record deficits, a war of choice pushed, fought, and spun by ideology, and the blame game. It's quite a record. It's shameful.

And now we have John McCain running for four more years of the same thing, with many of the same tactics: trivializing, demonizing; in short, all he has to offer is more stupidity. It's really like one giant prolonged Twilight Zone episode! It's time to get a grip.