Severe Conservative Syndrome

As I often note, things within the Republican Party have become increasingly irrational and the embracing of ignorance and outright prejudice in many forms the norm. The CPAC gathering in Washington, D.C., certainly showcased the open hate and prejudice against gays, liberals, the poor, blacks, Hispanics and minorities of every stripe. It's as if these people want to erect a sign that says that only white, conservative Christians are welcome at the table of full citizenship. I continue to believe that this mind set is but a symptom of deeper psychological problems that encourage the persecution complex on ready display. In reality, its the conservative white Christians who are doing the persecuting of others, but you'd never take away that truth from their rantings. Paul Krugman has a column in the New York Times that looks at the increasing toxicity within the GOP. Here are some highlights:

Mitt Romney has a gift for words — self-destructive words. On Friday he did it again, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was a “severely conservative governor.” As Molly Ball of The Atlantic pointed out, Mr. Romney “described conservatism as if it were a disease.”

That’s clearly not what Mr. Romney meant to convey. Yet if you look at the race for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, you have to wonder whether it was a Freudian slip. For something has clearly gone very wrong with modern American conservatism.

Start with Rick Santorum . . . . Anyone with an Internet connection is aware that Mr. Santorum is best known for 2003 remarks about homosexuality, incest and bestiality. But his strangeness runs deeper than that.


For example, last year Mr. Santorum made a point of defending the medieval Crusades against the “American left who hates Christendom.” Historical issues aside (hey, what are a few massacres of infidels and Jews among friends?), what was this doing in a 21st-century campaign?

Nor is this only about sex and religion: he has also declared that climate change is a hoax, part of a “beautifully concocted scheme” on the part of “the left” to provide “an excuse for more government control of your life.” You may say that such conspiracy-theorizing is hardly unique to Mr. Santorum, but that’s the point: tinfoil hats have become a common, if not mandatory, G.O.P. fashion accessory.

Then there’s Ron Paul, who came in a strong second in Maine’s caucuses despite widespread publicity over such matters as the racist (and conspiracy-minded) newsletters published under his name in the 1990s and his declarations that both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Act were mistakes.

Finally, there’s Mr. Romney, who will probably get the nomination despite his evident failure to make an emotional connection with, well, anyone. The truth, of course, is that he was not a “severely conservative” governor. . . . . But Mr. Romney is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and whatever his personal beliefs may really be — if, indeed, he believes anything other than that he should be president — he needs to win over primary voters who really are severely conservative in both his intended and unintended senses. . . . . his stump speeches rely almost entirely on fantasies and fabrications designed to appeal to the delusions of the conservative base.

How did American conservatism end up so detached from, indeed at odds with, facts and rationality? For it was not always thus. . . . My short answer is that the long-running con game of economic conservatives and the wealthy supporters they serve finally went bad. For decades the G.O.P. has won elections by appealing to social and racial divisions, only to turn after each victory to deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy . . . . Over time, however, this strategy created a base that really believed in all the hokum — and now the party elite has lost control.

The point is that today’s dismal G.O.P. field — is there anyone who doesn’t consider it dismal? — is no accident. Economic conservatives played a cynical game, and now they’re facing the blowback, a party that suffers from “severe” conservatism in the worst way. And the malady may take many years to cure.

The only piece that Krugman fails to fully emphasize is the correlation between the growing power of the Christian Right and the growing overall insanity and hatred that now so dominate the GOP.