Delusional Element

[ProSense]

Delusional Element

My last post talked about Jim DeMint's strange and dialectical "win by losing" credo. His way of "thinking" was nicely summed up in the Washington Post today by former Reagan and Bush 41 staffer Ed Rogers:

Notice to Republicans: Arlen Specter changing parties is good for the Democrats and President Obama and bad for us. If you think otherwise, put down the Ann Coulter book and go get some fresh air. There's always a delusional element within the GOP that thinks if we lose badly enough the Democrats will gain so much power they will implement all their crazy plans, the people will revolt and purest Republicans will then be swept back into power. Even if this were true, it doesn't take into account the damage done while our opponents are in control.

I guess it would be too much to expect for Rogers to also note the damage that could be done if conservatives insist on lashing the true-believer party base into a permanent counter-revolutionary hate frenzy. But at least he didn't blame the whole situation on Barack Obama's failure to be "bipartisan."

As a son of the Deep South, I am intimately familiar with the cultural phenomenon of believing in victory-through-defeat and the glamor of "noble" failure, a spiritual disease that inflicted many of the white folks of my region for more than a century. Maybe it's no coincidence that Jim DeMint comes from the state whose fever swamps first fed that affliction. I'd love to see the voters of the Palmetto State (my own native state), refute that suspicion before too very long.

Please allow the GOP to self-destruct in peace.