In a must-read, E.J. Dionne talks about
the breakdown of American democracy in today's
once great Washington Post Kaplan Daily:
[T]he political far right is, among other things, a big business.
The NRA’s chief concern is not sane public policy. Its imperative is to
maintain market share within a segment of our country that views the
federal government as a conspiracy against its liberties and President
Obama as an alien force imposed upon them by voters who aren’t part of
“the real America.” Within this market niche, background checks are but a
first step toward gun confiscation.
In a well-functioning
democracy, the vast majority of politicians — conservative, moderate and
liberal — would dismiss such views as just plain kooky. But here is the
problem: A substantial portion of the Republican Party’s core
electorate is now influenced both by hatred of Obama and by the views of
the ultra-right. Strange conspiracy theories are admitted to the
mainstream conversation through the GOP’s back door — and amplified by
another fight for market share among talk radio hosts and Fox News
commentators.
The outsize influence of the National
Rifle Rampage Association is one of the examples Dionne uses to demonstrate how the far right has an institutional head-lock on American democracy (think also deficit doltishness, Senate filibuster and gerrymandering). Where some might see "checks and balances," we see gridlock that frustrates the will of the American people time and time again.
