When all the right-wing accusations, finger-pointing, name-calling, pants wetting, fear-mongering and frothing at the mouth about Bowe Bergdahl gets sorted out, it comes down to one thing:
The right wing doesn’t want Obama to get a win, for anything, ever.
Not for seeing impacts of wider health coverage finally kick in. Not for taking baby steps administratively to deal with climate change. Not for presiding over a rebounding stock market and slowly improving labor market.
Not even for bringing home an American soldier held captive for 5 years.
The GOP has jumped the shark.
What the Dems haven’t done yet, though, is separate non-crazy rank-and-file Republicans from their long-time loyalty to the party.
Yesterday Krugman’s column mentioned, in passing on the way to making another point, that the Republican Party had gone insane. There is plenty of evidence to back up that conclusion, fair enough. I just don’t think it has been amassed and presented convincingly to Republican voters.
The GOP tactic of “attack-attack-attack” keeps base Republican voters engaged, frothing and angry. For that group, attacks serve to re-affirm commitment to the cult. But at some point—maybe now—the attacks are so over the top that folks with long time Republican loyalties who are not cultists should re-assess their feelings.
Folks watched “Happy Days” for a long time. And then Fonzi jumped the shark.