National Review Magazine hosts an annual cruise where geriatric right-wingers can mingle at sea with luminaries from the conservative cognoscenti. It’s difficult to grasp why anyone would actually pay to be trapped aboard an ocean liner with the likes of Ralph Reed and Jonah Goldberg, but that’s precisely the sort of punishment to which they subject themselves.

Joe Hagan at New York Magazine made the sacrifice to get aboard and mingle with these sailors as they commiserated over the loss of the November election. It’s a fascinating read that reveals much about the passengers on this Loveless Boat.

Here are a few choice quotes from the GOP flounders to wet your appetite and demonstrate what these losers really think and say about politicians and voters with whom they disagree when they think no outsiders are listening:

Who sent Obama here to destroy America?

The people have spoken, the bastards.

White people didn’t get to the polls. There are far more African-­Americans voting than they expected.

The thing we have to understand is, these are people who don’t have any morals.

I actually think that Goebbels was more critical of Hitler than the New York Times is of Obama.

These people are so evil. They’re basically Fascists.

Rasmussen: “You show them [minority voters] that you really care, you talk to them as grown-ups on a range of issues, you get them involved … and you accept that you can learn as much from them as you can teach them.” Passenger (and National Review contributor) responds: “That’s bullshit!”

I think we’re going to go into the toilet, and I don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop it.

You notice none of the workers [on the boat] are white. … Well, that’s the way it should be.

What a charming collection of open-minded, tolerant Americans. Just the sort of people who can be counted on to respect democracy and work to make the country better. No wonder the Republicans in congress are so intransigent and bullheaded, even about compromises that are obvious and favored by a majority of citizens – like higher taxes on the wealthy and preserving Social Security and Medicare.

Of course, no article on “fools” would be complete without a mention of their rodent-crowned king, Donald Trump. He may not have been on the cruise, but he is nevertheless drifting with the tides of extreme ignorance. In his weekly visit with the Kindergarten Krew at Fox & Friends, Trump said…

“Look, the Republicans are sitting there with a nuclear weapon, so to speak. They have debt ceiling coming up. They can use that as part of the negotiation, and they should.”

He was referring to the upcoming debate on increasing the debt ceiling, which he said could be “devastating to Democrats if the Republicans want to play that card.” That illustrates just how poorly Trump grasps economics. Meddling with the debt ceiling would not be devastating to Democrats. It would be devastating to America. The last time the GOP tried to obstruct this process, the nation’s credit rating was downgraded. Holding the country hostage in that manner is downright unpatriotic. Especially when they lie about what the debt ceiling is. It does not increase the national debt. It merely permits the country to pay bills it has already incurred. To fail to do so would constitute a default that would cost billions in higher interest payments.

There is so much blatant idiocy on the right that is not countered by rational conservatives due to their fear of being labeled soft and challenged by Koch brothers financed groups like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks. These cowards are propped up by the propaganda on Fox News and get affirmation on silly cruises hosted by National Review.

The result is the dumbing-down of the Republican Party and turning it into an unelectable political carcass. So maybe the news isn’t all bad.