I heard a joke the other day:
Q: What do you call a group of religious fanatics bent on destroying the United States?
A: Republicans
It's funny because it's true.
Although to be fair, they're not just religious fanatics. The Republican party is a big tent -- they welcome fanatics of all stripes. But no matter their particular strain of crazy, they share a common determination to destroy the United States government. Then we can all hold hands and skip happily toward a glorious Libertarian future, with no taxes, no government services, and "girls were girls and men were men." Praise Reagan (peace be upon him).
What I've realized with the recent debt-ceiling fiasco is that the Republicans are like movie villains. They have the upper hand over the president because they have nothing to lose. They can hold the country's (and, by extension, the world's) economy hostage because they genuinely don't care about the consequences of a default. Hell, they'd welcome it. I seriously believe they want an economic catastrophe, both because it would boost their chances to reclaim the White House (to which they believe only they are entitled), and because they think that in the ensuing chaos they can recreate the country in their image. Think Iran without the whimsy.
I happen to think they're misreading the situation. The last time the United States faced a truly devastating economic disaster we responded by taking a giant stride toward socialism. But who knows? It could have just as easily gone the other way.
But yeah, it's like a bad movie. And this is the scene in the movie where the badguy is holding a gun to someone's head and threatening to shoot if the cop doesn't drop his weapon.