President Palin? Sociopath McCain.

[the48er]

Even we progressives too seldom discuss the phenomenon of Republican sociopathy. Maybe now, given John McCain's Sarah Palin selection and its logical necessities, we can start getting into the habit of having such discussions -- and advancing them further into mainstream consciousness.

The Palin selection is -- inarguably, I think -- a manifestation of sociopathy.

("Sociopathy" is a layperson's descriptor -- not a generally accepted medical term. It's closely related to, yet different from psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. In the simplest possible terms, a sociopath has no conscience.)

The logical necessity of understanding the Palin selection as sociopathy is about as straightforward as it could be:

The odds are very good that a Vice President Palin would become a President Palin. John McCain is 72. His father was 70 when he died of a heart attack. His grandfather was 61 when he died of a heart attack. McCain is also a cancer survivor with a range of other health problems.

As is well known, a President Sarah Palin would be the most spectacularly unqualified president in U.S. history. As of today, she has served a mere 22 months as governor of one of America's most remote and least populous states. Before that, the former Miss Wasilla (and Miss Alaska runner-up) earned a B.S. in journalism -- her highest academic achievement -- from the University of Idaho. She then worked as an Anchorage sports reporter. From there she went on to serve in Wasilla (pop. 8,471) government from 1992-2002. After a failed 2002 bid to become Alaska's lieutenant governor, she held two very minor posts in Alaska state government. She was elected Alaska's governor two years ago this November.

Right-wing extremist religious fanatics -- whose votes McCain needs -- love Palin. She thinks women and girls who've been impregnated via rape or incest should be forced, by law, to carry the ill-begotten fetuses to term. She also thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.

But Palin doesn't believe that humans are causing climate change.

Given McCain's stunning willingness to sacrifice the well-being of America and the world to his own political ambitions, how can one reasonably conclude anything other than that he's a full-blown sociopath?

As far as that goes, I'm inclined to think that were this a rational world -- a utterly ludicrous qualification, I know -- we'd see a good deal of credible, mainstream discussion of the phenomenon of Republican sociopathy. John Dean went part-way down that path with his superb Conservatives Without Conscience, but it seems to me that he and a very few others have barely scratched the surface.

[mwb970]

1. In a rational world, there would *be* no Republicans.

It really is as simple as that.

[the48er]

2. No, That Might Be a Perfect World

Sadly, in THIS world, as with the poor, wackos will be always with us -- although that doesn't mean we should tolerate the existence of either.

I've always thought that in a merely sane world, Democrats would be the right-wing conservatives, Greens would be the moderate centrists, and Republicans would be ... in prison.

Guess I'm willing to settle for less than you are.