How's this for a title from the Daily Beast regarding the fracas within the GOP The Day The Mad Dogs Took Over the Republican Party
Mad Dogs? To put the headline in context:
The rage kept the base galvanized. It kept the enemy, or enemies—liberal and the media, often one and the same—in the gun sights. But it could also be controlled, the way Reagan controlled it. And even Dubya controlled it. The rich didn’t really share the rage, or most of them. Even the Koch Brothers probably don’t, what with all the froufrou artsy-fartsy outfits up in New York they help sustain.
But all of them have used it. And they have tolerated it, the casual racism, the hatred of gay people, and the rest. They tolerated it because the booboisie voted the right way, and because they, the elites, remained in charge. Well, they’re not in charge now. The snarling dog they kept in a pen for decades has just escaped and bitten their hand off.
Ouch!
How about this Shutdown Stems From GOP's Breakdown
from Fareed Zakarias:
This is a remarkable reversal. The GOP used to be a party that believed in hierarchy. The Democrats were the loose coalition of assorted interests with little party discipline. For the past three decades, Democrats have nominated outsiders — George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama. Republicans, by contrast, always nominated the guy who had waited his turn — George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney. And today, the Republicans are dominated by the tea party, which has no organized structure, no platform, no hierarchy and no leader.
Then there's
Cruzification Of The GOPfrom Dana Milbank at the Washington Post:
The small-but-vocal tea party had been seeking just such a confrontation since the 2010 election, and they opposed compromises by Republican leaders that postponed the showdown until now. Conservative groups that advocated for a standoff spoke openly about their motives. At a breakfast with reporters Wednesday, Michael Needham, chief executive of the conservative group Heritage Action, freely admitted that he was “pretty optimistic” that we will soon see a crackup of the old Republican order.
I like cheerfulness, don't you? That Heritage Action guy seems pretty sanguine about the destruction of the GOP
Moving right along, Business Insider heads it's article about the carnage How The Mighty Republican Party Became So Ignorant
I was curious to see if my theory about lead-lined goblets in the cafeteria was finally being picked up, but no, the reason for the current idiocy according to Business Week is that:
Conservatism has always represented a stand against the tide of history. Progress is an anathema to many who wish the world would stop spinning while they catch up.
But elevating ignorance over scholarship should have no place in conservatism. The role of political leadership is to gently persuade people to face the world as it is, the better to change it. The Age of Unreason that insists that Hayek won, that Darwin lost, that hot is cold, and that babies are found under gooseberry bushes brings all rational debate to a halt.
Who can reason with those who, to gain popularity with the foolish and the shallow, rail against the real world?
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/...
It's really a great article about how the denial of reality has finally caught up with the GOP.
Now, in this brief overview of what people are reading and writing out there, I think it is safe to say that the media has dropped almost all of the false equivalence, both sides do it, yadayada BS. They are telling the truth for once. The Republicans holding the country hostage are: mad dogs, martyrs, ignorant, leaderless, disorganized, incoherent, intolerant and just plain stupid.
I don't see them rebounding anytime soon from this kind of public perception.