Abject Stupidity

One day in the not-too-distant future, we will shudder when we remember that this insanity is what dominated the discourse on one of the most significant public policy issues of our lifetimes.

A registered nurse charged that there would be 'legal genocide' if health-care reform passes -- and questioned whether Obama was born in the United States. Other opponents complained of a loss of individual freedom they saw as inherent in the reforms. There were angry denunciations of the drain on the system from 'illegal aliens.' And throughout the nearly two hours, there were repeated expressions of distrust of the government.

This is what happens when you sit back and allow today's Republican Party - a howling asylum of birthers, deathers, teabaggers, and garden-variety nutjobs - to define the terms of any debate.

For shame, Democrats. Clothe yourselves in sackcloth and ashes and repent for ignoring your mandate and squandering this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

It's enough to make you want to burn the party to the ground and start over.

The communists actually overthrew and then murdered the Czar

So, no, "czar" is not a "Russkie commie" term.

I was at a Blanche Lincoln town hall meeting in Russellville, Arkansas, yesterday--and the number of people who believe that the President has larded the government with communists (!) was astonishing. One woman said there were four known communists in the government and that she'd researched it on the internet. When I asked her afterwards, she said environmental adviser Van Jones, legal advisor Cass Sunstein (who was last spotted being excoriated by the left for supporting the FISA revisions), someone named Lloyd and she didn't remember the fourth. And wasn't it suspicious that Obama had all these czars working for him--that was a Russkie commie term, wasn't it? When I asked, the woman admitted that, among other things, she occasionally listened to William Bennett's conservative radio show. I pointed out that Bennett had once been the Drug Czar, appointed by Ronald Reagan. Life sure can be complicated sometimes.

I am shocked, as I know you are, that a teabagger would get her facts wrong on such a basic point of Russian history.

This is the kind of abject stupidity controlling the political discourse in this country.

President Obama and the Democratic Party should hang their heads in shame for having surrendered so much to this drooling, knuckle-walking tribe of know-nothings.