Summary: America has a broken OODA loop. Dozens of posts here have documented it, but this past month provided ample more evidence. From both Left and Right. Today we look at the Right: their indifference to the real world, their eagerness to believe lies by their leaders, and steadfast adherence to failed strategies. On another day we’ll discuss the similar traits of the Left. Led by these two groups, American’s crash on the rocks seems guaranteed.
Today’s question for readers: what brings so many Americans, tens of millions, to believe such things and to follow such leaders? While Republicans might be the extreme example of this, it’s afflicted most of us to some degree. In that sense we’re all Republicans.
Here are some examples from the past two weeks. Dozens more could easily be listed. This is madness, on several levels — throwing away what took 160 years to build.
- Commentary Editor John Podhoretz has amnesia about his writings during the campaign, preventing him from learning lessons about it. Analysis by Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine, 21 November 2012
- The GOP’s death wish: seeing the world in terms of makers & takers. As William Baldwin does in “Do You Live In A Death Spiral State?“, Forbes, 25 November 2012
- James Kwak (Assoc Prof, U CT) explains how GOP propaganda grossly exaggerates US government liabilities: “Entitlements Scare Tactics“, The Baseline Scenario, 3 December 2012
- “Why the GOP Won’t Admit Supply-Side Econ Has Failed“, Mark Thoma (Prof Econ, U OR), The Fiscal Times, 4 December 2012
- Jay Cost of the Weekly Standard has amnesia about his writings during the campaign, preventing him from learning lessons about it.
- “Shorter Eric Canton: ‘The Rights of White Men to Sexually Assault Women of Color Shall Not Be Abridged!’“, Erik Loomis (Asst Prof History, U History), Lawyers Guns and Money, 7 December 2012
- “The Intellectual Poverty of the Sovereigntist Argument Against the Disabilities Convention“, Erik Voeten (Assoc Prof Geopolitics, Georgetown U), The Monkey Cage, 7 December 2012 — David Kopel (research director of the Independence Institute) makes stuff up about the UN Disabilities Convention.
- “Bobby Jindal {Gov of LA} Unclear on What Fiscal Cliff Is“, Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine, 6 December 2012 — But he writes a WSJ op-ed about it anyway.
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For a more detailed analysis of this problem
See the work of Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. Such as:
- “Admit it. The Republicans are worse“, Washington Post, 27 April 2012
- Their book It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism
Other posts about the GOP
- The evolution of the Republican Party has shaped America during the past fifty years, 8 May 2010
- Conservatives oppose the new START treaty, as they opposed even the earlier version negotiated by Ronald Reagan, 24 July 2010
- Why do Rep Ryan and the Republicans want to gut America’s military defenses?, 14 April 2011
- A modern conservative dresses up Mr. Potter to suit our libertarian fashions, 17 November 2011
- Ron Paul’s exotic past tells us much about him, the GOP, libertarians – and about us, 27 December 2011
- The key to modern American politics: the Right-Wing Id Unzipped, 15 February 2012
- Why Republicans Need Remedial Math: Their Budget Plans Explode the Deficit, 16 March 2012
- What every American must know about the Republican Party, 16 October 2012
- Let’s list the GOP’s problems. They’re all easily solvable, 12 November 2012
- The Republican Party is like America, and can quickly recover it strength, 14 November 2012
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