I'm feeling so damn frustrated right now. It's pretty clear that the believers in the Rapture have taken over the Republican party ... since they must believe they'll not be affected by what they are doing, by God!
While I know I'm being simplistic and have actually been told that here, I think this can be laid at the feet of authoritarianism, as I understand it via political psychologists. Now I'm not a political psychologist, and don't even play one on TV, but bear with me below.
A friend of mine on Facebook and I were talking about the shutdown and potential debt default. He said he didn't understand what's going on in D.C.; they're like spoiled children telling their parents what to do. To which I tried this as an explanation:
I believe these folks are what would be considered authoritarians. The deal with authoritarians is that if a fact doesn't fit their worldview, it isn't a fact. They will follow their leaders into hell for their cause.
They do very little critical thinking, and are ruled by the "lizard brain", the most primitive part of our brains, which controls instincts like "fight or flight".
They are afraid they are losing "their" country, with all teh gayz and teh blacks, and teh brown people. It's a visceral fear in the gut, like a panic attack.
True reality is what conforms to their beliefs. If it doesn't conform, it isn't reality.
That's why they hate science so much.
And now it's being reported that the R's are going to leave down after repeating the same demands that have been rejected already. It's like they have a death wish and we're all gonna get hit.
So apparently they believe they'll be insulated from the effects of this by some sort of Dominionist God, or they believe that they'll be taken up and the rest of us will be
Left Behind™.
What does this imply for a resolution of this manufactured Republican crisis, then? Don't look at me ... I don't know how to get through to people who are immune from facts that don't agree with, yeah I'll say it, their insane worldview. I do know, however, that my fight or flight instinct is going great guns (pun intended) right now.
Chatting with another friend of mine today, I found out he believes that ultimately we will split into 3 separate countries: Mid-Atlantic from MD north and New England (PA might give us trouble), the (Confederate) South, and then the West. Maybe we throw in MT, ND/SD, NE, KS, MO in with the confederates for good measure. Note that the confederates in that latter configuration would have control of many nukes on their soil (I am half-kidding, but only half.).
But in all seriousness, what is the endgame? And what is there to wrest power from the Tea Party in the Republican party? I'm thinking it has to be Republicans that do it; not a chance they'd listen to anyone else, if they'd even listen to anyone that's not a bonafide Tea Party "official"? I'm open to brainstorming and suggestions.