It wasn’t that long ago that large-scale paranoia was the province of
the far Right; black U.N. helicopters, one world government, that stuff.
But the Left has stepped up recently to share the burden of
profoundly crazy worry.
Avedon writes on Atrios (via Wolcott via Lance Mannion, and isn’t that
how the blogosphere is supposed to work? And another thing, I’m not
going to use the word ‘blogosphere’ anymore. Someone come up with
something else.)
“One reason I don’t think it’s at all paranoid to suspect that the
Republicans have deliberately taken over the voting system in order to
cheat is that they keep doing things that don’t otherwise make sense.
There’s a rather long list of things you just wouldn’t expect them to
think they could get away with unless they really thought they could
control the ballot box, because otherwise they would have to expect
that the public would kick enough of them out to not only end some
political careers but also make impeachment – and prison – a distinct
possibility.
And then there’s this nuclear option thing – why would they be willing
to remove any possibility of stopping majority party initiatives
unless they were absolutely sure that they could never become the
minority party again?”
Put down the hookah, friend. Sell crazy somewhere else. This isn’t
hard, okay? Republicans are in office because more people voted for
them. They do things “that don’t otherwise make sense” because
– and this is the tricky part for you Clintonite Dems — they think
it’s right to do them.