Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire quoted an article from Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast:

“If you’d asked me six months ago whether the Republican Party would manage to find a few ways to sidle back toward the center between now and 2016, I’d have said yes. But today, on the basis of evidence offered so far this year, I’d have to say a big fat no. With every passing month, the party contrives new ways to go crazier. There’s a lot of time between now and 2016, but it’s hard to watch recent events without concluding that the extreme part of the base is gaining more and more internal control.”

Tomasky’s piece also included this more concise lead-in:

“If you thought the GOP would adopt more moderate positions after the 2012 debacle, you were wrong.”

Well, not to toot my own horn but when and if you asked me six months ago if the Republicans were coming back to center I would’ve told you no. I said they weren’t almost a year earlier. It doesn’t take a visionary to see that the Republicans have been headed down a path of destruction since well before this past election cycle. It’s even easier to armchair quarterback it after the fact.

The Republican base is made up of mostly older Americans; that’s no surprise. When they had the opportunity to activate and increase their base by welcoming in the upstart Tea Party, the wisdom of the Grand Old Party jumped at the chance. Only now are they beginning to glimpse the overwhelming powers of stupid they unleashed. A veritable cornucopia of prejudice, discrimination, ignorance, religious fervor and hate. A Pandora’s Box of idiocracy. The stupid flowed like a tapped keg at Rumspringa. Now, drunk from that keg, Republicans of old find themselves searching for their identity; like looking for keys to their ride that they dropped while being drug around the party by some chaste but willing, bonneted, overly religious, and directionless youth drunk from the same tap. “She looked good last night though. Didn’t she, Red?”

As the GOP tour bus continues its cross-country trip by making a series of right turns, some sharper than others, it becomes more apparent that the steering wheel isn’t going to come back to center anytime soon. Smashing through roadblocks, ignoring the SLOW Children at Play and school zone signs; blowing through stop signals held by their own appointed traffic guards toward the inevitable dead-end guard rail, where they apply brakes only to find the fluid leaked out a long time ago somewhere in the backwoods. Now, after punching through the barrier, hanging over the edge of a precipice unable to regain traction, only a moderate few are managing to abandon ship. The majority are going over the edge. The wreck is a neck-breaker. And for those of us caught watching the race, the explosive impact after they fall – screaming the whole way down – will be unlike any movie stunt we’ve seen to date. It could be, one might say, of biblical proportion. The Republicans have not succeeded in stopping the bus. But there is always the dramatic pause before gravity hurtles you to your doom.

They will continue to splinter and in-fight. They will continue to push their misguided agenda on common people. Some uninformed or under-educated will buy in. The problem is we must wait a full election cycle for the agitator and spin cycles to stop. Then we must be ready with the softener before the final rinse. Seriously, everybody knows you don’t add new reds in with just any load and apply heat without pre-washing them on their own first. That’s a sure recipe for pink wife-beaters.

Speaking of recipes:

Right-wing extremists are as prevalent as macaroni and cheese at a southern church social. But they are never the same, nor as good as what you make at home. These group casseroles look good to some on the surface but when you dig in, you find it was far from what you expected. And the taste left over becomes increasingly bitter on the palate. Most use the old standard of traditional Velveeta and some aged sharp cheddar. Both are fine, in moderation, but one is overly salty and fake while the other is just too oily to be the star of such a dish. Plus, the latter separates when heated. The best recipes are always more inclusive, incorporating flavor and texture from a variety of cultures. When stirred together in the same pot, they melt to create the warm and fuzzy comfort we have grown to love and crave. Plus, it makes a great snack when watching bus wrecks on the big screen.

What you need to do is vote. That’s all. Don’t blow off mid-terms. It brings down the average. Like a bad soap opera, the Republicans will scramble for story line. Predictably killing each other’s character off or involving themselves in scandal, the manufactured drama becomes a bore. All we have to do this time around is change the channel. ‘Click.’ The race is on. Anybody hungry?