Howler [Quote] of the day, with Derp

This is simply magnificent.

The saving grace for the conservatives on this front is that they, by virtue of being conservative, at least have an understanding into how human nature actually operates.

--  Eric Ericson

Really - could it ever get any better?  Well maybe.  There is so much more here.  Go read the whole thing, if you have the stomach for it.

Or, if you are of a more delicate constitution, you could simply read the last two paragraphs of Josh Barro's response to E.E.'s would be smack-down of Barro.

This is a strategic problem for Republicans for several reasons. One is that the party’s reliance on a resentment-based appeal has caused its policy apparatus to atrophy. Erickson is not alone among conservatives in thinking that “academic and technocratic” approaches are best left to pointy-headed liberals. Another is that people like Erickson are a declining share of the electorate.
 
Basically, Erickson is derpy. And Erickson has big appeal to conservatives because lots of them are derpy. But the country is getting less derpy, and in time the Republican party will have to get less derpy, too. That’s my project, and I don’t expect Erickson to like it.

 

[Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/erick-erickson-shows-the-worst-in-gop-2013-6#ixzz2VFn8NnIl]

This is the Republican party tearing itself apart, and it can't come to fruition soon enough.  Vacuous know-nothings like Ericson on the one hand [who evidently does not realize that Obamacare is a conservative plan put forth 20 years ago by the Heritage Foundation - hence its many flaws] and younger, less radicalized thinkers like Barro.  I haven't paid much attention to Barro, so I don't know what kind of a thinker he is. 

But what kind of thinker would remain aligned to the Republican party of 2013, when there is a much more rational conservative party available.  Is the fact that they call themselves "Democrats" really that off-putting?

H/T to Delong.