Wake Up and Smell the Crazy

My first post on this blog that related to current political events - here reproduced in full - was short and to the point.  Clearly, I had not yet discovered my Blogger voice.

THE OBAMA RECESSION

With Home equity losses of over 6 trillion dollars from 2006 through 2008, Right-wingers are trying to blame the current recession on Obama.

The guy who took office in 2009.

Yeah, I get it. Not funny.

Some anon wingnut left a comment that prompted me to refer to Grover Norquist and Magical Thinking.

As Bill Maher puts it, while the Democrats have moved to the right, the Republicans have moved to the insane asylum.  But that's over decades.   Most recently, it has only gotten worse. Here's Krugman, from yesterday's op-ed piece.

A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask. 

Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye. 

And may I say to those suddenly agonizing over the mental health of one of our two major parties: People like you bear some responsibility for that party’s current state. 

.  .   .

First of all, the modern G.O.P. fundamentally does not accept the legitimacy of a Democratic presidency — any Democratic presidency. We saw that under Bill Clinton, and we saw it again as soon as Mr. Obama took office. 

As a result, Republicans are automatically against anything the president wants, even if they have supported similar proposals in the past. Mitt Romney’s health care plan became a tyrannical assault on American freedom when put in place by that man in the White House. And the same logic applies to the proposed debt deals. 

Put it this way: If a Republican president had managed to extract the kind of concessions on Medicare and Social Security that Mr. Obama is offering, it would have been considered a conservative triumph. But when those concessions come attached to minor increases in revenue, and more important, when they come from a Democratic president, the proposals become unacceptable plans to tax the life out of the U.S. economy. 

Beyond that, voodoo economics has taken over the G.O.P. 

.   .   .

Recently, however, all restraint has vanished — indeed, it has been driven out of the party. Last year Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, asserted that the Bush tax cuts actually increased revenue — a claim completely at odds with the evidence — and also declared that this was “the view of virtually every Republican on that subject.” And it’s true: even Mr. Romney, widely regarded as the most sensible of the contenders for the 2012 presidential nomination, has endorsed the view that tax cuts can actually reduce the deficit. 

.   .   .

So there has been no pressure on the G.O.P. to show any kind of responsibility, or even rationality — and sure enough, it has gone off the deep end. If you’re surprised, that means that you were part of the problem. 

 Have I ever mentioned that I love it when Krugman agrees with me?
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