Today's Cartoon Twofer: The Republican Party's New Normal

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(Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)



(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

Credit where due, the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle takes aim at the blister on humanity's ass, also known as the Republican Party:

THE REPUBLICAN Party, once small government’s champion, is now the party that breeds presidential contenders who would monitor schools and mosques, shut down parts of the Internet and exclude certain immigrants for no reason beyond the faith they profess. In the GOP debate Tuesday, those ideas — along with can-you-top-this rhetorical barrages aimed at illegal immigrants and Syrian refugees — received a generally polite reception, with constitutional, legal and practical questions contemptuously dismissed as “political correctness.”

True, the extremism that now passes for mainstream Republican thought, robbed of its shock value by the unfiltered ravings of Donald Trump, was punctured from time to time with expressions of dismay, incredulity and doubt.  [snip]

By and large, though, these ludicrous proposals went unremarked on by the Republican contestants, for whom bigotry, hatred and magical thinking are the new normal.

As true as ever, let's just say it:  The Republicans are the problem.  And they're a problem that's been around for longer than most will admit, and they're getting more dangerous all the time.

The Price That's Paid For Believing Lies

From yesterday's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle comes a story of how the Republican scare machine - with Fox "News" and hate radio as its biggest megaphones - has done its job with low-information folks who would benefit enormously from more affordable health care:

Carolyn Underwood remembers her dad coming home covered in black coal dust from the mines. “Momma would have his water ready. He’d wash his face and she would wash his neck,” she said. 

In old age, he suffered from black lung disease and wore an oxygen supply constantly. But unlike his daughter, he never worried about how he would pay his medical bills. The union took care of it. 

That doesn’t make Carolyn Underwood, 63, a supporter of expanded government health coverage, even though she would benefit from it. In a region where the decline of the coal industry has sent poverty and health-care needs soaring, another force has grown at least by equal measures: antipathy to President Obama and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

“I am scared of Obamacare,” Underwood said. “We’ve been hearing too many tales about it. We heard there’s doctors who get to decide . . . ” Before she could put her finger on the term “death panels,” her sister Nancy Taylor, 62, made a gun gesture with her hand and said, “Pow!”  (our emphasis)

Union family.  Appalachia.  Low-income.  And they're "scared of Obamacare."  People for whom government social safety nets were designed in order to make their lives less awful, shunning the help that's there for the taking.  "Death panels," our asses.  "Tales" is the right word, Ms. Underwood. Heckuva job, Republicans!

"Socialism!"

Jon Stewart hits Fox "News" (fat) head Roger "Jabba the Nut" Ailes and the Rethuglicans' selective application of their favorite recent "Boo!" word. Watch it all, please.

"Nevermind!"

Think Progress and HuffPo have the quotes from the pundits and pols who prematurely declared "Obamacare" dead. Reps. Eric "No We" Cantor and Man-Tan abuser John "Boner" Boehner ("The Orange Boner") have more than their share of nonsensical dire predictions preserved in perpetuity. The credulous Villagers will no doubt be dutifully reporting the equally nonsensical dire predictions that "we will repeal this bill" that are already coming from many of the same dimbulbs.

(Image: "They what? They passed health care reform? Nevermind!")