More and more I feel like we're drowning in the flood of crazy emanating from

[cali]

elected republicans in D.C. and in statehouses across the country.

It's become ridiculously bad since the ascendancy of the tea party nuts. And a lot of the crazy shit is being enacted into law.

It seems as if batshit crazy is the new norm for republicans and a significant percentage of the electorate.

[BigDemVoter]

1. When I look and see

that the majority of crazy shit is originating in my state (AR), I feel a huge sense of shame for my state, its voters, and its government.

I've always tried to make excuses for Arkansas by pointing out that Clinton is from the state, and we had excellent statesmen such as J.W. Fulbright.

HOWEVER. . . It's not the same place nowadays. There is NOTHING redeeming about the state anymore. It has completely and utterly fallen to the forces of bigotry, racism, homophobia, ignorance, xenophobia, and BAT SHIT CRAZY fundamentalism.

[global1]

13. And This Is Not Going To Change Until Repug Voters Start Feeling A Sense Of Shame....

There has got to be a point that the Repug politicians will do something that will tip the balance and Repug voters will stop voting for them. Right now Repug voters have got to be embarrassed to say that they are Repugs. I keep asking my Repug friends how they are not embarrassed by those they elected. Some are starting to crack and say "I'm an independent". We have to keep after them and keep point out the stupid things those they elected do. I really thought this letter to Iran would be the straw that broke the camel's back. If we keep it in the news cycle and calling those that signed in traitorous or saboteurs - it might work.

[swilton]

24. It's not the GOP or their voters that are totally to blame

Yes they've gone over the cliff and are bat-shit crazy.

But where are the Democrats who stand up to them? The lone and strongest voice of opposition are the Independent Bernie Sanders and the token Elizabeth Warren. Corporate Democrats running against Tea Party Republicans are not a choice and do not bring out the voters.

[YOHABLO]

27. We have to overturn Citizens United. Get campaign finance out of the hands of corporations.

[midnight]

2. You can thank the Koch's and their Union- ALEC for propping up the teaparty group.

[kestrel91316]

3. I knew this when I first head the calls for a return to slavery and stonings

from the christofascists - no longer afraid to speak their true thoughts.

[First Speaker]

4. I feel helpless sometimes--"this *can't* be happening"...

...things that seemed wildly impossible, even under Reagan--even under Dubya--are happening, and nothing seems able to stop it. It isn't just the New Deal and the Progressive Era that are under attack. Or even the Civil War, and the Reconstruction amendments... It's the goddam American Revolution that's under assault. The very idea of a country governed by Enlightenment principles. And the Dems seem totally unable even to explain this fact in plain English, much less show any passion in fighting it. I'm scared for the country, and honestly don't know what the endgame is. Of course, we fight as best we can, work, volunteer, and vote. But I'm certainly pessimistic these days, much more than I ever was in the Nixon days...

[cali]

6. Me too. And it happened so fucking quickly

[LiberalLoner]

28. Me too. :(

[Cleita]

5. Now they are getting their candidates into local governments.

It's happened in my county. We always had more conservatives than not, but at least most of them displayed common sense for local issues. This last election, because of gobs of outside money poured into the election of some candidates, we have several Tea Party crazies in office now.

[msanthrope]

7. The flood of crazy is because we have a viable candidate. They don't. nt

[cali]

9. I disagree. The flood of crazy has been going on for nearly a decade.

[msanthrope]

12. It's been going on since the Voting Act....when they realized they would

statistically just number out.....

But here's the thing, cali......they are scared shitless of 2016. Look at the reelection numbers in the Senate. They will lose it for good.

[cali]

15. yeah, but here's the thing- it's only over the past 6 years that

the tea party has taken over the republican party and taken over more than a few state legislatures and governorships.

Sadly, I don't think they'll lose the Senate in 2016. I think we'll make inroads, but they'll still hold it. It's a damn tall order to get it back in one election.

[msanthrope]

16. No... cali....We can take the Presidency and the Senate in one election.

We have the numbers. We need the fucking will.

[mopinko]

18. the map is much different in 2016.

last years races were in mostly red states. 2016 races are more of the blue states. i dont think they will keep the senate.
i am pretty sure mark kirk will go down. tammy duckworth is thinking of running. she will mop the floor w him.

[calimary]

26. The good news they got last November will be counter-balanced by the basic bad news it

foretells for 2016 - the more seats you have, the more you have to defend. Which means your money will be scattered and subdivided and will have to cover more territory. And some will go begging as it appears they're not worth the struggle and expense to defend. The GOP will write a couple of 'em off.

Plus, it's a Presidential Election year and even our laziest and most unmotivated Dems tend to get off their asses and go vote for President (and then, hopefully they're not too lazy to cover the down-ticket races too).

I keep murmuring to myself - "enjoy it while you got it, mitchy-boy. You've got less than two years to throw that Senate "Majority" Leader thing around in everybody's faces. And that'll be it. That's all you've got. TWO YEARS, MAX."

Then 2018 could be a problem - but maybe, hopefully, not as much of one, at least not if THIS is off 'n' running:

http://dlcc.org/news/dlcc-launches-advantage-2020-key-success-next-round-redistricting-70-million-plus-effort

SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, on our side, FINALLY got it through his or her pathetically thick head - that we have to defend at the STATE level. We have to get the Governor's office back, and hopefully also the Secretary of State office, too - to head off the katherine harrises and kenneth blackwells, and that jerk Secretary of State who's fouled everything up in Kansas, too. We have to get the state legislatures back - wherever and whenever we can - because THAT is where the attacks on the ACA, Roe v Wade, and the Voting Rights Act come from, as well as the abysmal Citizens United and Hobby Lobby rulings. That shit starts at the state level, too, and its activists just hope and pray they can push their lawsuits up through the legal system all the way through the Appeals Court process and then SCOTUS.

Somebody FINALLY woke up and caught on. FINALLY!!!!!!

If I donate ANYWHERE this next round, it's gonna be to Advantage 2020.

[kelly1mm]

29. We need a net 4 pickup to have it 50/50 in the Senate with a D VP elected to control

e Senate. I see 3 real possible/likely pickups Kirk in IL, Toomey in PA and Johnson in WI. I cannot find a 4th. Any ideas?

[Quasimodem]

21. The flood of crazy is predicated on a lack of honest news organizations in the country --

And those few which do remain are not mainstream.

[Quasimodem]

22. double post

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Yup. Every day there's some new bit of lunacy

emanating from the fetid bowels of the GOP. I don't know if this nuttery has always been there and we just see more of it because of the Interwebz tubes, or if they really are crazier than they've ever been. Either way, it's getting scary as hell. And depressing.

[cali]

10. there's far, far more of it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. That is also my impression.

I suspect that the demented notions that have always been festering out there (e.g., the nutjobbery of the likes of the John Birch Society, the KKK, Father Coughlin) are now metastasizing with the help of the Internet and Faux "News." Gullible, stupid and/or mean people have always been around, but their mean, stupid gullibility is enhanced and abetted by "pundits" (did you know that "pundit" is a Sanskrit word for "wise man"? Ha!) who have managed to attain a level of credibility by virtue of nothing more than the fact that they have a voice on Faux and various loony web sites.

These people are totally mental and they scare me.

[GliderGuider]

11. It's not just American Republicans

Add in Russia/Ukraine, EU/Greece, ISIS, China's pollution problems, global weather disruptions... It feels like the whole damn planet's come unhinged.

[Orsino]

17. Big Money's agenda requires it...

...to the point that not parroting the crazy is a political liability. Money makes it as hard as possible to distinguish the genuinely unhinged from the merely corrupt.

[erronis]

20. I'm glad you brought this up ($$$)!

From now on, most significant elections in the Untied States won't be decided by voters pulling levers.

It will be decide by people with money and the ability to gerrymander/jerryrig districts, voting restrictions, and product placement.

I doubt you and I will really have a voice as voters until there is some major legal/societal upheaval.

[Orsino]

31. I guess the hood news is that voting still matters...

...or they wouldn't be trying so hard to outlaw it.

[mopinko]

19. i'd like to think that the courts will stay the worst of the crazy, but

yeah, the water is getting pretty high on that count, too.

used to be thugs could pass tough abortion bills knowing they were meaningless, they would be struck down by the courts. anymore, i am not so sure.
and they have done their best to cripple orgs like planned parenthood who could be counted on to sue.

yup, i feel ya.

[Fumesucker]

23. There is a method to the madness

The right is dragging the Overton window in their direction with all this nutty stuff, meanwhile the left is told to sit down, shut up and vote for pragmatic center right moderates or the crazy right wingers win.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

The Overton window is a political theory that describes the range of ideas the public will accept as a narrow "window". According to the theory, an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within that window rather than on politicians' individual preferences.[1] It is named for its originator, Joseph P. Overton (1960–2003),[2] a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.[3] At any given moment, the "window" includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office.

[cali]

30. agreed. and very effective they've been.

[jaysunb]

25. I agree and have had that same feeling more and more lately

Just today I saw that an Oklahoma legislature has introduced a bill that would ban marriage that was not sanctioned by the clergy. whose clergy ?
But this is almost small potatoes compared to the long list of destructive activity that I believe is designed to do just that: destroy the country so that it can be remade in their warped visions.

I did not spend 13 months of my life in Vietnam for THIS !