I think most Republicans of today genuinely see fighting for their right-wing agenda and ideology as

[Douglas Carpenter]

the same thing as patriotism and opposing their right-wing ideology as anti-American borderlining on treasonous. They carry it to a belief that shutting down even a centrist-Democratic led government as shutting down the enemies of America. I suspect they would even believe that crippling a centrist led economy as crippling an enemy economy. I don't think most Republicans of today (not traditional Republicans of the past) are psychologically capable of even imagining the principle of uniting the country for the common good. They would see that as treason against God and America. This is a party that thinks passing Obamacare - a program well to the right of what most Republicans would have once supported - is the moral equivalent of the Nazis invading Eastern Europe and not defunding Obamacare as the moral equivalent of collaborating with Hitler. They are simply living in crazy land.

[WCGreen]

1. Fueled by the dozens of hate talkers that rule the AM radio bands every hour of every day...

And then there are the local guys who pick up the slack, the ones who want to be the next Rush by out righting him...

[Volaris]

3. Agreed...

Re-instatement of the Fairness Doctrine plus Publically-funded Newspapers will fix this problem in about 24 months.

[Dustlawyer]

19. We need to bust up the national media using our airwaves. Too few owners (6 companies own

90% of the media) prevent real stories from coming to light and spew propaganda for the 1%!

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. I'm sure the right-wing infotainment industry is the major element that changed a party from one

where Colin Powell in 1996 led in the polls - to a party where the primary debates were a series of "who can sound the craziest competitions" - With the craziest sounding one leading in the polls until someone could out-crazy them.

[RKP5637]

2. And, the majority of republicans today are domestic terrorists. One looks at what they do,

what they want, their goals and it is difficult to conclude otherwise. They in essence want to bring down the US into some warped strange land they envision glorifying themselves and destroying the rest. To me, the republican party of today is far more dangerous to the longevity of the US than those, over there, through of as dangerous to the longevity of the US.

And many Americans walk with blinders on as the country they take for granted crumbles beneath their feet. And "Idiocracy" rules more and more each day as the emerging status quo.

[CJCRANE]

5. There is a very simple propaganda formula being used

throughout the world now: christian against non-christian, muslim against non-muslim, muslim against christian, devout believer versus moderate believer etc.

It's all about division using theocratic propaganda. The propaganda can be out in the open via the MSM or more under the surface via social media. And by the results it seems that it's very easy to brainwash a substantial amount of impressionable people.

[Blanks]

8. I get a lot of emails from the DCCC, Harry Reid, and every other group with my email address...

That forward this concept of which you speak.

Both sides are guilty of trying to manipulate us into forwarding their cause. We aren't going to beat the republicans by out fund raising them and we aren't going to beat the republicans by running more ads on TV. Yesterday's attention getting device.

Just gathering up money for TV ads to fight the republicans shutting down the government seems to lack ingenuity to me. Especially with so much social media, and the ease which videos can be shared these days. I assume that's why they want so much money from me: television ads. They ask a couple of times every day.

We need to get back to making stuff and fixing stuff (or at least tearing some stuff down) and get away from both parties trying to out-maneuver each other. I think we can all agree that there is plenty of work to be done, and bullshit peddling isn't really moving us forward.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

12. What do you mean "now"?

Yes, what you describe goes on. But there's probably less of it now than at any time in the past.

[CJCRANE]

14. Religious fundamentalism has grown exponentially since the 1980s and taken off in the 21st century.

Just look at the Tea Party for a political example of this.

Just look at the Middle East and Africa other examples of this.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Yup, it's the exploitation of binary thinking. Repubs famously said "We don't do nuance!"

It's the strategy of polarization. Rove wanted to win by having a rock solid 51%. He thought that was a better bet than going for a 55% or even 60% where some on the right and center might waver.

Sound bite journalism feeds binary thinking.

[Coyotl]

6. Trained by religion to believe in self-delusional ideation, it is so easy for them to do this.

This is why religion is so dangerous.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. They believe that the common good *is* far right-government.

And that shutting down the government is a price worth paying.

[bluestate10]

9. The mindset of the modern republican party is about winning and imposing their will on

everyone else. One need to look no further than what happens when republicans take control of a legislative body or Governor's chair. Once republicans take control, women's rights come under attack, child nutrition comes under attack, spending increases even as republicans claim that it not increasing. The worst fiscal conservatives that I see on a daily basis are people that I know are republicans, they are fundamentally poorly focused and stupid with how they handle money.

Prominent people like Melissa Harris-Perry claim that we need a strong republican party. Harris-Perry is wrong, the faster the republican party dies, the better for the general health of our nation. Republicans are bringing NO solutions to the table and have become nothing but a boil on the nation's ass.

[Cryptoad]

10. You must realize

that to the Tee Party even the act of any governing it an act of socialism!

The GOP's Point of No Return has been reached. They are in Fact a walking Dead Political Party!

[SaveAmerica]

11. A tea partier wrote on a forum it was their duty to destroy

a government that was not working for the whole of the citizens. When someone else reminded them they were being treasonous against their own country they responded that it was just like when the colonists fought England for independence and creating a better government. That's where they are, they feel that they are in the middle of a historic moment and the days after the destruction will be better than those before when it will really be a steaming pile of crap.

I don't think they understand what treasonous is.

I think it helps them that the richie riches that are funding anti-everything Dem commercials are feeding off of their fear that the Government is out to get them, take all their tax dollars while doing stuff that is going to hurt their families. A current anti-Obamacare commercial in NC has a older lady saying that 'we know that the government can't do anything right, they will just do this wrong too and end up hurting everyone'.

[maryellen99]

15. I totally agree that the Kochs know what they are doing

They know that the their uninformed fox news watching base and 1% wannabes will eat it up. Like the saying goes, There's a sucker born every minute.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Translate "whole of the citizens" --> "we who have our two car payments & home (oh & white skin)" nt

[ThomThom]

21. I don't think they understand that we change the government with

the vote.
get more people to agree with you than disagree and your way will be the way
with a little education tea party folks will vote with more common sense
not enough is being done to get the facts out about anything
threatening people with guns will not win over the most people

[Triana]

13. You should really read Claire Conner's book about these extremists

now running our gov't. What you say is exactly true. They believe they're driving out the "demons of communism" still. To them, everything not extreme right wing is communist or socialist. If it's not NRA, KKK, Moral Majority, extremely religious and bigoted, it's "ebil" and they WILL endeavor to drive it out or destroy it at any cost.

To cap that, they're NUTS and they always have been. Propped up by the monstrous (and frankly nutty) Koch Brothers, and their other v.wealthy friends (sheldon adelson, pete peterson et al), they have unlimited resources to buy and control any corporation or government they want.

Think about it.

http://claireconner.com/

(NO I don't work for this woman. I've never met her. But get the book. In it you'll see today's Tea Party. Claire tells her story of growing up among them in the 1950s thru the 1980s. They never went away. They went underground and re-emerged as the "Tea Party" - their extremism is non-stop and you can bet your patootie they'll do ANYTHING to destroy the government and the economy if it fits their hideously religious extremist beliefs)

[Z_California]

16. That's how I see it too

"genuinely see fighting for their right-wing agenda and ideology as
the same thing as patriotism and opposing their right-wing ideology as anti-American borderlining on treasonous."

Just switch "fighting for" and "opposing" and that's exactly how I see it. These people are traitors.

[abelenkpe]

20. Pretty much describes my east coast tea party relatives

My mother is such a birther/tea party nut that she is so sickened by our non-republican ways she has refused to visit or call since 2005. She reads Free Republic daily.

[Octoberfurst]

22. They're crazy but determined.

The modern day Republican party has gone completely insane. Liberals were kicked out years ago and the couple moderates that are there in Congress are hanging on for dear life. What the GOP has morphed into is an outright fascist party. They are hard-core Right and anyone who doesn't agree with their crazy agenda is an anti-American traitor.
Look what happens when the GOP takes control of a State. You see laws passed that crush Unions, lower worker pay & benefits, make abortion access almost impossible, make voting really hard and demonize immigrants. They bend over backwards to help the ultra-wealthy while slashing away at the social safety net. And don't get me started on how they push creationism in public schools! In short they are a bunch of ignorant, nasty a--holes.
I know Tea party people who really think that the government should do NOTHING for anybody. The only thing the government should do is provide for defense and build prisons and nothing else! They really want a dog-eat-dog Mad Max kind of world. Oh that and a theocracy. It's insane but they think it will be a utopia. These people are so stupid that they truly believe that corporate rule is preferable to government rule. (Of course they also believe that Obama is a Marxist, Muslim Kenyan who is the anti-Christ. The stupidity abounds!)
I fear for my country. I really do. If Tea Party Republicans ever take over the Presidency and Congress we are doomed! It will be a nightmare. And they will be more than happy to place dissidents into prison or just kill them outright because we are going against what "God wants!"

[randr]

23. They repeat the "Pledge of Allegiance" like gospel

and never pay attention to one word.

[ljm2002]

25. Great summation...

...it is truly distressing, the depths to which our political discourse has fallen, and the resulting dysfunctional government.

Welcome to DU!

[SomethingFishy]

29. +1 Welcome to DU..

The Tea Party will self destruct. With that much hatred, it's the only possible outcome. Question is, will it be too late?

[pasto76]

24. "republicans of today" vs 'republicans of the past'

expand your mind a bit - Eisenhower, the guy whose quote has surfaced on DU a million times about the party who fucks with social security is committing political suicide - is a republican. Lincoln is a republican.

I submit that Chuck Hagel is a Republican.

Boehner, Gingrich, McConnell and Cantor? Conservatives by name in this culture. Radical in any other. There is a huge difference.

If you can see those differences, you might be able to understand the difference between democrats and liberals.

[wandy]

26. I would like to feel sorry for them, I just cant bring my self to do so..............

The republican party has done an effective job of recruiting those who are most driven by the emotions of fear and hatred.
I can understand the financial motivations of republican officials and their spokespersons. They serve the people who pay them.

As to the every day republican, the ones that cheer at the denial of food for the hungry or aid to the sick, their motivation must go beyond lack of information.
Their fears of inadequacy and self loathing are easily turned outward by those whom they believe serve or inform them.

[DirkGently]

27. Some of them believe that. Others are just selling it.

Part of the box Republicans have constructed for themselves is that they're selling the total worthlessness and inefficacy of "government." As if we could, what, get rid of it?

What they mean is that government is bad when it limits the powers of wealth or endeavors to work for the common good. They want defense spending and big contracts for industry, but nothing that levels any playing field or protects the environment or anyone not plugged into power already.

It's a lie, of course. The wealthy interests wouldn't have any of the things that make wealth fun, or even possible, without things like roads and schools and health care and education and ... workers. But it's a nice fantasy that rationalizes not cooperating in the short term.

In the past, they've been able to reel in their half-logic when necessary, but now they have the Tea Party, which believes its own bullshit up to a point.

They think that can partially destroy the country and not pay for that.

[Douglas Carpenter]

28. knr

[Rex]

30. Well history has shown GOPukers to be treasonous bastards.

They prove that they will break huge laws and violate the U.S. Constitution if it fits into their ideology. Very dangerous people, been saying that for decades now.

It is just now that we have the Tea Party crazies in charge of the GOP that we see just how dangerous they are and will destroy America, because their beliefs are more important to them than all our lives.