I really hate stupidity

And the Republicans have let stupidity rule over the last 10 years. It hasn't always been so, though more of the tendency of the last 30 years. And, with the addition of the Tea Party idiots, the stupidity quotient is going up. Look at their budget proposals and you see a group of people who really don't understand how our system works. As Bruce Bartlett notes, many of them newly elected to Congress have no real idea how Congress works--at a literal level. We have seen member after member denounce government healthcare as socialist, while then either complaining about their own coverage, or not even realizing that their healthcare is subsidized by the tax payers.

Read Bartlett further and you realize that the anti-government crowd is incredibly loud and incredibly stupid. Many denouncing government don't even realize the benefits they get or have gotten from government--which reinforces my main argument that people associate government spending with welfare and not with programs that benefit them. The myth of autonomy, or the "bootstrap myth" seems alive and well, and we see that with the newly minted Wisconsin governor declaring war on unions. After all, if you truly believe that you have made every dollar on your own, then why do you want others to get assistance?

Bruce Drake suggests further that the Tea Party nonsense (keep your government out of my medicare) is actually really at odds with the rest of the Republican party. In fact, he says that on most spending cuts and investment issues, that non-Tea Party Republicans are closer to Democrats than to the Tea Party.

Yet, they let them in the tent. They could have laughed at them with the death panels and "keep your government out of my medicare," but supposedly responsible Republicans such as Chuck Grassley decided to cheer them on. Now they may regret that as they have let in the dumbest and dullest into their midsts, and now have to work with people who believe that compromise is communism. Hell, we see people like Pam Geller now denouncing the conservative CPAC as infiltrated by muslim extremists. They are everywhere! Be afraid. Hell, read the story and see the idiots saying that all muslims are extremists.

And the fact is, I think many of those are not truly idiots, nor are they such extremists, but they have been encouraged to think this by people who should know better. SOF and I have been talking about Fox and how people who watch them could have a very hard time not being fear-filled at every single story. After all, watching Fox, you will get a completely different view of everything from the middle-of the road Obama approach on taxation and healthcare to what just transpired in Egypt. Perhaps, if I watched Fox all day, I too, would believe that Muslims were all extremists and linked to communism.

Did anyone see this story? I know it is Media Matters, but this interview with an insider from Fox was quite interesting. The unnamed source (yeah, I know) says straight that the "news" is just made up:

"The source continues: “I don’t think people understand that it’s an organization that’s built and functions by intimidation and bullying, and its goal is to prop up and support Republicans and the GOP and to knock down Democrats. People tend think that stuff that’s on TV is real, especially under the guise of news. You’d think that people would wise up, but they don’t.”"

This is, in big part, the fault of the Republican party. In the guise of expediency and electoral wins, they embraced their new ally in Fox, and then the Tea Party. Now, those with half a brain left find themselves working for idiots and open liars. I would feel sorry for them if the consequences weren't so dire.

I grew up Republican, and certainly believed that there were serious people who supported their policies. I still do, actually. But I no longer believe that the party itself, nor the people running it, are serious people who want government to work. They simply want the rich to get richer, and the rest can suck it.