I've posted a few things here recently to show how nuts the Republicans have gotten. But are they so crazy? Or are they crazy like foxes?
If you are really interested in that question, ask a Republican - or at least one that has recently left the Party after spending the larger part of twenty years serving that Party in Congress.
Alternet has posted a "lightly edited" transcript of a discussion with Mike Lofgren. Here are a couple of samples:
Joshua Holland: ... Do you still identify yourself as a moderate conservative?
Mike Lofgren: Well, I would say that in today’s GOP, Ronald Reagan would be considered too moderate. After all, he pleaded with Congress to pass a clean debt relief bill when the deficit threatened to get out of hand. He passed several tax increases. So I think maybe the GOP has maybe passed me by.
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JH: It seems to me, and it comes through very clearly in the book, that religious fundamentalism is by definition incompatible with democracy, because democracy requires some compromise. When you believe your position is the word of God and the other guy’s position is the work of Satan you can’t really meet in the middle, can you? How did this ideology play out when you were working on the Hill?
ML: You kind of saw that and it was one of the reasons that led me to retire from the Hill. In early 2011, I saw that this whole new infusion of Tea Party Republicans, particularly in the House, they were going to use the debt limit increase issue -- which had been passed without too much crisis something like 87 times previously since World War II -- use it to ransom the government of the United States
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I hope this has whetted your appetite, now go and read the whole thing, or listen to the entire interview. (They've got a link)
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