Everyone's noticed that there's something dysfunctional and bizarre about the race for the Republican nomination for president in 2012.
I've got a theory about why that is. It's about what the Republicans, in recent years, have wrought in their base. For a long time, the Republicans and their plutocratic allies have been systematically working to create a vast Republican base that's way out of touch with reality. After 20-some years of Rush Limbaugh and 15 years of Fox News, after using lies and manipulations to cultivate hate and fear and irrationality in their followers, the Republicans now have an activist base that's pervaded by folly and ignorance and more than a little madness. Now the Republicans --in an instance of "unintended consequences"-- must ride the tiger they've created. Anyone aspiring to get the Republican nomination depends on the support of that activist base... |