By Mark Sumner (DailyKos) When Rush Limbaugh blames the BP disaster on “eco-terrorists,” I don’t believe he really thinks this is in any sense factual. When Newt Gingrich compares Muslims to Nazis, I don’t believe he does it out of ignorance. When Glenn Beck says that President Obama will force doctors to perform abortions and Michael Savage says that the president will disband the Marine Corps, it’s not because they are badly informed.
When Sen. Pearce insists that the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to the children of immigrants, when Fox news moves the beginning of Obama’s presidency so that the disasters of the Bush years land on his plate, when those who were so shocked that Godwin’s Law might have been dented in a blog post two years ago are now shouting “Hitler” on the floor of the House and Senate — I don’t think it’s because they’ve been pushed there through no choice of their own.
Death panels? Do you think the people making that claim really believed it? What about global warming being caused by sun spots? How about the threat of Muslim terror babies?
The question of protecting the nation or the principles on which it was built is no longer the focus of “conservative” arguments — it’s not even a side note — because this group no longer makes any distinction between the common good and their own self interest. They have reached the conclusion that their success is worth any price, even if that price is fatal to the founding principles of the nation. They have no canon but victory, no concept of restraint.
It’s not surprising that this generation of Republicans has made a hero out of Joseph McCarthy. They admire the way in which he cowed his enemies and the way in which he distorted the meaning of liberty. They admire him because he generated fear.
The question of “have you no sense of decency” has been answered. They do not — at least not one that rises above their hunger for power.
Read the rest: Daily Kos: State of the Nation.
