The cost of our war on public life - By E.J. Dionne Jr.

[DonViejo]

We didn’t fully realize just how hard it is to be president until we had one with no idea of what it takes to do the job.

We didn’t appreciate having a government that was relatively honest and free of venality until we had one riddled with corruption.

And we didn’t know how wildly irresponsible Republican criticisms of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were until the GOP fell silent in the face of abuse after abuse from President Trump. Obama was “not presidential” for wearing a tan suit? Benghazi? Really?

Let’s start there. When the current administration finally reaches the end of the line, we will need some serious rethinking about how to grapple with the asymmetry in the behavior of our two parties. Republicans — and particularly the party’s dominant right wing in the House of Representatives — have kicked away a lot of credibility in a very short time.

Reports that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee leaked private text messages between Sen.?Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and a Russia-connected lawyer to Fox News offered a prime example of their partisanship-above-everything attitude. Let’s not have amnesia a few months or a few years from now about how political warfare took priority over the nation’s security or how double standards became the rule for a large part of the GOP.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/were-witnessing-a-war-on-public-life-this-is-the-cost/2018/03/04/ddc94790-1e5f-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html

[ffr]

1. It's right out of Ayn Rand's playbook of selfish me-me-me behavior.

The same playbook that Paul Ryan makes required reading of all of his staff. It's not coincidence. Conservatives want you to worship and serve them. They have no loyalty to anyone but themselves, personally. They got theirs. You're on your own, Joe and Jan Public voter.

The sooner we expose their selfish ways, the better we can understand how their agenda flies in the face of American values.

Link to tweet

[niyad]

2. k and r