Ezra on death panels

First Ezra Klein, then me:

The fact that an idea as loony as death panels has found even the slightest purchase in the public consciousness shows how distant the minority feels from our democracy. Members of Congress are terrified of voter backlash and industry opposition. They are leaving virtually the entire health-care system untouched. They will scuttle the bill if a rural hospital in their district doesn't receive sufficient reimbursement or if a local device manufacturer is harmed. Yet there is a certain portion of the country that believes that Max Baucus and Mike Ross are willing to vote for death panels and defend them before their constituents in the following election.

It's not as much an issue of a segment of society being disconnected from its government. America has always had loons. You can always find 20% to 30% of the population to support some crazy idea in a survey. I remember in the 1990s reading that one-third of Americans supported outlawing gay kisses in public.

The problem isn't that some Americans are disconnected, or nuts. The problem is that the Republican party, and its apparatus on FOX News and talk radio, is fostering and empowering the crazies. While far-right GOP extremists used to send a letter in all caps to Washington, between gulps of lithium, now they have Rush and Glenn and John Boehner (and the religious right) egging them on, and telling them how and where to express their lunacy - and worse, find kindred spirits. The problem isn't that America has crazies. It's that the crazies are being given the political equivalent of fertility pills. It's bad enough the GOP gave America the religious right (a monster they created). Now they're giving us Joe McCarthy's just as paranoid, and just as un-American, grandson.