Day 15, and the madness continues.
But I know why Republicans have shut down the government and may lead us into a debt ceiling default. It’s not all that complicated. Here’s the reason: You cannot take out of a person’s mind with reason what reason didn’t put in to it in the first place.
This is why facts don’t matter to them. They refuse to be bothered with them. Arguments based on facts involve thinking, and that is the last thing Republican radicals want to do. It hurts their head.
When this thing started Michele Bachmann told Sean Hannity her bunch was winning the argument in the minds of the American people. I laughed out loud. For her to believe most people agree with her is the equivalent of saying she believes most people are like her. Now that IS delusional.
The absence of reason is why President Obama and the Democrats must not give Republicans anything in return for ending their anarchy. Any notion that doing so would solve the crisis ignores that absence. People who are reasonable would not be doing what is being done in the first place. So appeasement now will encourage Republican extremists to continue acting without rhyme or reason.
I understand very well the gravity of the situation. Anyone who thinks at all does. But having a divided government with one side run by people who believe thinking is the enemy of truth cannot go on indefinitely. At some point real leaders have to take the risk of telling these people they will not stand by and let them destroy our way of life.
That is the tipping point we have now reached. It remains to be seen if there are enough leaders to take the risk.
linnposts.com 
Thanks to the marvel of You Tube I saw a documentary series that first ran on the BBC just four years ago, about the former East Germany. In her own way I suppose Michele Bachmann and her fellow Tea Party acolytes are just like the rulers of the former East Germany. The latter saw the writings of Karl Marx as sacrosanct, which no one was allowed to debate or dispute – just as I suppose the so-called religious right must see the Bible as ‘inerrant’. But both will have come to grief in the same way, for when the money runs out as it did in East Germany by ’89, the Tea Party will find out that the real problems we all face can’t be wished, explained – or prayed away.
An insightful comment, Nigel. Would that the Bachmann types would heed warnings like yours. Many thanks.
“Bachmann types” ????? Sounds perjorative! WHERE is YOUR “political correctness” ???