Defining political deviance downwards

The recent CNBC Republican primary debate provided a valuable insight into the conservative mind-set. Traditional ‘reality-based’ political commentators are shocked and amazed (really, again?) that telling straight-up lies that could be fact-checked with three mouse clicks is not a disqualification from the field. Ben Carson’s claim to have no involvement with Mannatech (a nutritional supplements company he shilled for), that has been forced to pay $7 million to settle a deceptive-practices lawsuit, was immediately fact-checked by PolitiFact as an unqualified falsehood. The audience reaction was to boo the moderators.

The recent revelation from a Times investigative report that conservative front groups like the Tea Party Leadership Fund appear to be primarily a money-making operation for the staff and consultants, since only 14 percent of the donations it collects are spent on “candidate focused” activities, does not seem to have dented their reputation in conservative circles. In the words of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:

“You might think that such revelations would be politically devastating. But the targets of such schemes know, just know, that the liberal mainstream media can’t be trusted, that when it reports negative stories about conservative heroes it’s just out to suppress people who are telling the real truth.”

The utter and complete fiasco of the CNBC debate has driven the Republican Party into uncharted territory. The toxic load of the CNBC moderators, who went out of their way to be as unpleasant, obnoxious and insulting as they could, plus the negative reaction of the conservative base to hearing from Beltway insider moderators, was finally too much for anyone to digest.

The Republican candidates reps met in a DC hotel over Halloween weekend to take control of the primary from RNC chair Reince Priebus. Poor Reince! Sadly, he ws pointedly ‘not invited’. It’s not very often that I find myself in sympathy with Ted Cruz, but his critique of the moderators for all the RNC-sponsored debates to date was about right. They have been absolutely dreadful. The Fox, CNN, and the CNBC moderators have done everything they can to provoke a food-fight atmosphere, because that’s what they think gets ratings.

So, now we have a new plan. Picture this, folks: per Ted Cruz, let’s have the Republican primary debate panel consist of “Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin.” That will really put the moderation in ‘moderator.’ The base has finally come untethered from the DC R-US dock. The blimp has slipped the moorings. All bets are off.

They needed a reboot after the comprehensive 11-hour beat-down of the House Benghazi Special Select Committee by Secretary Clinton. As a Bernie Sanders supporter, I have to tip my hat to HRC. She was like one of those martial arts wizards who spins and kicks a dozen attackers simultaneously and leaves them all mortally wounded in a bloody pile. Yeah, I’ll bet committee chair Trey Gowdy wishes he hadn’t televised that hearing. I wouldn’t want to have a national audience for getting my butt kicked by a girl. The systematic ruthlessness of her dismantling of that bogus committee left me with newfound respect for Hillary. She slew them with ease, dabbing the moisture off her upper lip as she walked out of the room in triumph, hair still perfectly coiffed. The woman has command presence. Boy howdy, Gowdy! Heckuva job. Ya’ll better get used to saying “Madam President.” Mission Accomplished!

The whole Benghazi Committee debacle was aptly summarized by my favorite blog, The Professional Left: “Benghazi is Whitewater. Benghazi is Obama’s birth certificate. Benghazi is Planned Parenthood and ACORN and Jade Helm and WMD in Iraq with a side of Freedom Fries.” That’s why we’re all sick of it. Enough already! The grown-ups are trying to run the country properly. Please go to your room.

I think that most middle-class and professional class liberals really just don’t viscerally get how deranged and depraved the Tea Party (oops…Freedom Caucus) faction has become. They have driven deviance downwards on the Right. Even semi-sane old-school Republicans like John Kasich (as part of a Wall Street class that realizes that defaulting on the national debt to defund Planned Parenthood is not a good idea) are pulling back. The base has come untethered from reality. No PR spin doctors can spare them the ultimate reckoning with the world as it is, not as their gut tells them it should be. We need to retire the lot of them before they do any more damage to this country.

Local note: keep an eye on the 5th District (West County) Supervisor’s race, where a scandal-weakened Efren Carrillo may be challenged by North Coast political rock star Noreen Evans. Here in the 1st district, Supervisor Susan Gorin will defending her seat from contender Gina Cuclis.