when did the inmates officially take over the asylum? just looking at the headlines the last couple

[niyad]

of weeks, and shaking my head at the utter insanity of people like newtie, Rmoney, and that cretin santorum not only getting airtime, print, etc., but actually being treated as though they were sane. the catholic bishits (thank you, the DU'er who came up with this), the repukes coming up with more and more hateful, ugly, destructive legislation. . the beat goes on. .

what happened to a time when these hate-filled cretins would have been relegated to the dustbin where they deserve to be, rather than given credence as serious people?

when did insanity become (as the tag line to some commercial put it) "the new normal?

[NAO]

1. In 2004, when they CHOSE to vote for Bush

despite the enormous evidence that he was an ignorant, incompetent demagogue.

[niyad]

2. probably a good starting point--I just keep thinking about how utterly insane things have been

just since the first of the year--ramping up from the first of last year when the new congress was seated.

[csziggy]

4. No, I think it started in 1980 with Ronald Regan

And his insane policies that got us where we are today. Remember, one of the things he did was close most of the mental institutions and release inmates on the streets without any way of getting treatment. I can't help but think there is some sort of correlation.

[NAO]

18. America was blindsided by Reagan but they choose Bush with eyes wide open

In 1980 the electorate was naive; they had never been exposed to that species of politico-pathology and they correspondingly had no defenses.

But in 2004, they DELIBERATELY CHOOSE, eyes wide open, to embrace the evil of George W. Bush.


THE MADNESS OF GEORGE W. BUSH: A REFLECTION OF OUR COLLECTIVE PSYCHOSIS
http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/?p=42

[niyad]

28. of course, the question still remains about the legitimacy of the 2004 election with the problems

in ohio, etc.

[The Genealogist]

29. And what was the electorate in 1984, when it chose St Ronnie?

One could just as easily change your statement to read "But in 1984, they DELIBERATELY CHOOSE, eyes wide open, to embrace the evil of Ronald W. Reagan."

I know how why family members who went for Reagan voted in 1984. One grandmother went for him because she was still in Red Menace mode and thought people with AIDS should be sent to live in isolated leper colonies. Her husband, as well as my father, both were just plain old right wingers. My dad's brother went for Reagan because he is a religious nut. My aunt and voting age cousins went for him because they obeyed my uncle and are religious nuts themselves. I was only 11, but I was all about Ronald Reagan, because I was a naive child who heard ALL REAGAN ALL THE TIME (well, maybe not all the time, as my hyper-racist grandmother, my other grandmother, was a Democrat and just voted for Democrats because she was raised to do so; trust me, she made Jesse Helms seem liberal).

[NAO]

30. My fundamentalist baptist parents voted for Ray-gun in 1980

but by '82 they hated him.

I was too young to understand the realities, but my parents assured me that our pastor (who was a figure of cult like worship and veneration) had been, in this particular instance, "fooled by Satan" into supporting Republicans, who they explained were "only for the rich folks".

I was reading Ayn Rand back then and thought I knew everything and thought my parents were quaint but wrong.

Turns out that BOTH our pastor and Ayn Rand were in fact full of shit, and my humble parents from IA were spot on about these things.

I will never forget being told by my mom that our pastor was "fooled by Satan".

[RKP5637]

3. To me, because politics has sadly become a reality show in the US. These

incompetent fools shouldn't be given any serious press, but they are treated as legitimate and that is so sad. And MSM makes $$$. It's pathetic, scary and sad. And congress now has a 10% approval rating. Makes one wonder there the F we are headed.

[virgogal]

5. JFK,RFK,MLK,and EMK must be rolling over in their graves to see the way

you refer to Catholic bishops.

They can't ALL be bad-----and no I have no way to prove this other than the law of averages.

I left the church about 40 years ago but the substitute word for bishop annoys me.

[niyad]

10. maybe they should be rolling over in their graves at the way those people are screwing over the

women of this country.

are some of those men in skirts not bad? when they start speaking up with as much vigor as the ones screaming right now, I might buy it.

I left the church long before you did, and I have used words a lot harsher than that for the woman-hating church hierarchy.

[Journeyman]

6. More than 30 years ago, Calvin Trilling wrote a piece on how difficult satire had become. . .

If I remember the details correctly, the issue that vexed Trilling was that the Soviets were threatening to increase the number of troops and nuclear weapons they had in Eastern Europe. To show the Soviets that we meant business and wouldn't stand for such a blatant provocation, the U.S. -- Reagan's Administration -- countered by staging a mock attack by U.S. forces against the U.S. base at Guantanamo.

As Trilling lamented, how can you satirize such a blatantly ridiculous situation and, in the parody, not make it sound reasonable?

[elleng]

7. Started before Lee Atwater, maybe with

Donald Henry Segretti (born September 17, 1941, in San Marino, California) is a former political operative for the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon) during the early 1970s. Segretti was hired by friend Dwight L. Chapin to run a campaign of dirty tricks (which he dubbed "ratfucking&quot against the Democrats, with his work being paid for by Herb Kalmbach, Nixon's lawyer, from presidential campaign re-election funds gathered before an April 7, 1972, law required that contributors be identified. His actions were part of the larger Watergate scandal.

I think repugs went nuts after nixon/watergate, and have been taking it out against Dems ever since.

[louslobbs]

8. It basically went into overdrive when a man named Obama won the Presidential election. That's about

the time they (Republicans), couldn't fake it anymore and could no longer control their hatred and bigotry. I'm sure they did everything they could to steal that election, but the votes for Obama came in so far above what they expected, they could not be made up for by the theft of votes by Republicans, their operatives and their voting machines. Enter Americans for Prosperity, Koch and the TBirchers......and their corporate media and all of it's support, and there you have it, instant out of control Pukers.
Lou

[sabrina 1]

9. Since it became possible to buy Congressional seats and the WH. Those paying

for elected officials do NOT want smart, thinking, independent employees who actually believe they are supposed to work for the people who elect them. That would be a waste of money.

So they clearly look for morons who will do as they tell them, say what they tell them to say, and vote in THEIR favor always.

If we are ever to get intelligent, ethical people into office, the money must be taken out of politics.

[louslobbs]

12. "They clearly look for morons" lol....I'm giving you another heart for that.

Lou

[sabrina 1]

17. Lol, but could anyone look at the Republican primaries and NOT think of that word?

I know it's not nice, but seriously, I can't even watch them, let alone ever consider voting for any of them. And thanks for the heart

[ronnie624]

20. Well said.

Another heart from me, also.

[sabrina 1]

31. Thank you, ronnie24

[treestar]

11. It is appalling

Truly appalling. 911/Bush and the 2004 election enabled the insane to think they could actually gain control.

[spanone]

13. we see everything through the media lens

[niyad]

14. the media, of course, is part of this insanity. did they create it, or merely make use of it?

[opihimoimoi]

15. 2012 is The Year when REASON trumps Fantasy...just watch how Truth dismantles fantasy

[niyad]

16. one hopes that you are correct

[Skittles]

19. ....

Insanity became normal the day America allowed the Supreme Court to install their pet boy into the White House as "president"

[saras]

21. 1980. Ronald Reagan. We had a decade's advance notice, and hid our heads in various dark places.

Remember, the term "Global Warming" was coined in 1969.
The first indication of the approaching end of oil hegemony was 1973.
It became clear in the seventies that ending pollution meant ending consumerism.
Civil rights, feminism, gender equality, education, had all taken strong steps forward, which enraged the radical right.
America knew, when Reagan appeared, that fixing things would be a long, hard, ugly job, with real, powerful enemies.
With that in mind, America knowingly drank the Kool-Aid, stuck its tail in the air, and moaned "Make me HAPPY! Give me STUFF!"

Now, mind you, there was an extremely well-funded propaganda machine behind this, but people didn't have to believe it so readily.

[niyad]

22. you are certainly correct about all you listed.

[eyeofnewt]

23. agree

I think this every single day. I'm amazed at the ignorance. I'm disheartened by the people who buy into it. I was just today thinking of a conversation I had with my mother in the 1970s about how far women had come. She was in her 50s then; died at 57. She wouldn't believe the war that is being waged against women. She would be even more stunned at the vast number of women who agree with this atrocious crap; that there is an article written, by A WOMAN that compares the physical attributes of conservative women to democrats. No, Mom, we haven't come a long way, baby.

[niyad]

24. the only way we have come is backwards.

"the handmaid's tale" seems closer to reality every single day. I don't think most of us who were working for women's rights in the 60's and 70's ever thought we would not only still be fighting, but having to fight even harder, and on more fronts than ever.

back then, we were told we didn't need the ERA--because the courts would take care of things--and look at the courts we have now, and still no ERA. we actually have legislators suggesting (although they say they are joking) that women's suffrage should be rescinded.

[GeorgeGist]

25. January 20, 1981

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan

[GeorgeGist]

26. January 20, 1981

[niyad]

27. what a dreadful day that was--I wore a mourning band for months after