Digby wrote an excellent piece about the ongoing disintegration of certain social values at the hands of the Republicans. For example, she writes, the Republicans have slowly but surely made the notion of torture somehow acceptable in America. Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is allowed to get away with outright racism every day. Glenn Beck has proved that escaped mental patients can have their own shows and influence 2 million Americans a day. Sarah Palin can be a serious contender for the presidency without being forced to accept real questions from the press. Furthermore...
Up until now there was no question that it would be political suicide, much less morally wrong, to make massive numbers of unemployed, working and middle class workers, pay in order to make an ideological point. But with these incoherent tea partiers and nihilistic libertarians pulling the same kind of out sized influence the neocons did during the Great GWOT scare, this is what happens. We lose our moral consensus.
But in a media environment where such nefarious political activity is laughed off as being part of the sporting event, the Bunnings and Limbaughs and Palins are allowed to ramble on.