People who never look in the mirror

A couple of items. First, Republicans thinking they lost the Ohio union ballot because they are too noble to stoop to dirty tactics. Hah! Talk about delusional. Of course this is the publication that defended Saxby Chambliss's Bin Laden ad. The second item is this:

The cheaply partisan contemporary Left makes me miss the old explicitly Marxist Left, at least a little bit. As the Marxists knew, the key to maintaining a paranoid, fantasy-driven worldview is maintaining a narrative that while wildly implausible is internally consistent, just as in sci-fi or horror movies.

This applies equally to modern American Right. Paranoia is rampant, preventing any compromise whatsoever. Comprehensive immigration reform can never happen because "the other side will trick us: we'll get amnesty and no border security," bipartisan deficit reduction is impossible, because "the other side will trick us: we'll get tax hikes and no spending cuts," and even banning late-term abortions is impossible, because "the other side will trick us: the health exception will mean that women who stub their toe will be able to get late term abortions." In all cases, nothing can be done without Republican political domination. In the case of the budget, it becomes an immediate threat to the nation because they inexplicably insist on threatening apocalyptic shutdowns and defaults if they don't get what they want the way they want it.

This really is bad for the country. We need two sane political parties. Hopefully if Romney becomes president, he'll reign in the crazies like Bush did. Or if Cain gets nominated and then goes down in flames because of more sex scandals and because people don't want their taxes raised to give more tax breaks to the rich, it will have a salutory effect on the Republican psyche (like a parent's spanking of their child). Unlikely, I know: they'll find some way to blame a conspiracy of "liberal racists" or whatnot. Ultimately this is what happens to you when you only pay attention to sources specifically tailored to your political perspective, dismissing pretty much the entire mainstream media as a propaganda wing for the other side.

I should note that Democrats are every bit as capable as Republicans of dirty campaigning. I also note that they have their share of paranoid members, though I can't remember the last time the paranoids almost caused massive catastrophe like Republican paranoia nearly caused a default and might still cause a shutdown.