The Republicans are the Problem

Hey, I didn't say it. Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, who write a column for the Washington Post said it right here. It's immaterial really that I completely agree with what they're saying. And this was back in April they said this . . . long before spectacle of these same guys apparently prepared to commit fiscal suicide rather than recognize what's been screamingly obvious for a long time. To wit: the country needs to have people with a modicum of brains running the government. It is going nowhere and will never go anywhere with the set of moron Republicans on the far right who are setting the agenda for this whole bloody country. What a mess these people have made of things.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.