IS IT SOMETHING IN THE WATER?

Those of us on the left who consider the health care reform bill just signed into law a necessary, yet flawed, compromise with the ideal, can only view with awe and amazement the hysterical reaction to the new law by those on the right. For reasons that remain obscure to me, large numbers of ordinary citizens, and an astonishing number of their elected representatives, seem genuinely to believe that the passage of the bill signals either the arrival of the AntiChrist or the demise of any semblance of American democracy. Medicare and Social Security were both considerably more consequential social programs, after all, and yet these same people appear to have made their peace with them sufficiently to recall with nostalgia the glory days of Reagan -- which occurred, after all, after both of those programs came into existence.

The very latest manifestation of right-wing craziness is the call by Representative Louis "Louie" Gohmert, of the Texas 1st Congressional District, for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution so that Senators can again be selected by State Legislatures rather than being elected by the people. I freely confess that this was my first encounter with Louie Gohmert, and I explored his website a bit to see whether there were any tell-tale signs of dementia. Not a bit of it. Louie has a handsome wife and three lovely daughters. They all attend the Green Acres Baptist Church, where he has served as Deacon and still teaches sunday school. He attained the rank of Captain in the U. S. Army, and before being elected to the House, was three times elected to a District Judgeship in Texas. The only evidence I can find on his website of a certain failure of rationality is the fact that in one paragraph of his campaign biography, he is described as decrying the notion that Washington Bureaucrats know better than American taxpayers, while in the very next paragraph, he is proudly described as the Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, where he presumably oversees the bureaucrats who know better than the American people how to manage such things. All in all, a perfectly ordinary right-wing Texas Republican. And yet, he wants to go back to the practice of having State Legislatures select Senators.

I feel a need, indeed a compulsion, to achieve some rational understanding of Republican insanity. These are, after all, my fellow citizens. They, or at least some of them, are also Representatives, Senators, Supreme Court Justices, former Presidents, very possibly future Presidents, and in large measure gun owners and carriers. If for no other reason than elementary self-protection, I need to understand what on earth is eating them.

They are freaked out by a Black First Family living in the White House. That I get. Like all of us, they are anxious about the state of the economy. But this madness has deeper roots. Their hysteria seems to be triggered by the visceral belief that their entire world is falling apart around them. Now, that just cannot be because they desperately want to be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition!

I invite my readers to offer serious and considered explanations. This is not a joke. Does anyone have any idea what is striking terror in their hearts?