Republican lawmakers, thought leaders, and entertainers can be divided loosely into three groups: assholes, the crazy, and the stupid, although there can be considerable overlap. And we can also create subsets for these groups. The largest group, by far, is the assholes. These are people who are extremely selfish, lack empathy, and often delight is saying and doing things just to be mean or to hurt other people’s feelings. They aren’t crazy or stupid, however, and they are often paid quite handsomely to be jerks. They will often parrot stupid and crazy things, but always very self-consciously, not actually believing what they are saying. Here are some typical examples:
ASSHOLES
Lawmaker: Ted Cruz
Thought Leader: Charles Krauthammer
Entertainer: Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter
Related, but much less self-conscious, are the people who are truly stupid. They will spout many things that they know to be untrue, but they have a tendency to internalize many Republican talking points and actually begin to believe them. They aren’t quite crazy, but their grip on reality is not very tight, either.
THE STUPID
Lawmaker: Rand Paul, Jim Inhofe
Thought Leaders: Peggy Noonan, Erick Erickson
Entertainers: Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity
Then we have the people who are basically unhinged. They may have ludicrous religious beliefs or they may fall for every conspiracy theory in the book, or they may just have no idea what in the hell is going on.
THE CRAZY
Lawmakers: Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Louis Gohmert, pretty much the whole Georgia delegation.
Thought Leaders: None
Entertainers: Donald Trump
There are other people who are hard to classify. For example, neo-cons like Bill Kristol, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte are not stupid, and they seem to have their senses about them. Yet, their policies are so destructive that we almost have to define them as crazy. Surely, anyone who follows their advice expecting good results is crazy. I think we can create a subgroup for these folks.
EVIL CRAZY ASSHOLES
Lawmakers: Dick Cheney, John McCain, Joe Lieberman
Thought Leaders: Bill Kristol, Jennifer Rubin
Entertainers: Dennis Miller
What’s almost completely missing is the old school Republican statesman who isn’t stupid, isn’t crazy, and isn’t enough of an asshole to disregard the needs of the poor or concerns about the environment or the importance of international organizations and collective security. Those folks have been driven out of the modern GOP.
So, where do you think various well-known Republicans belong in these classifications?
Whoa. That is what we get for not defining torture as torture and acting accordingly under the law.
Once again, all you need to do to predict the content of one of her columns is to grab a hold of reality and turn it completely inside out.
And it seems from her column that you have her in the appropriate category.
Too bad Obama let them all go.
I think for those “old school Republicans” there needs to be another category called “Trembling Invertebrates”.
That is the most apt descriptor I can come up with.
For a crazy thought leader, slot in Glenn Beck.
There are varying degrees of stupid. Rand Paul I wouldn’t say is stupid, exactly. His father is somewhere between stupid and crazy, and appears to have built the king-hell gravy train Rand now conducts more or less by accident. Rand is at least smart enough to seize on daddy’s movement and work out how to keep it running well enough to supply him and his with a comfortable living forever.
He’s not half as smart as he or his followers think he is. But he’s smarter than Sarah Palin, who shot her whole wad in a matter of months and isn’t ever getting it back.
For Rand Paul: brains, please see this week’s hot tub reference.
I don’t think Ron Paul is crazy or stupid at all. I think he’s doctrinaire palaeo-conservative, a true believer, and that’s why he’s attracted a following of frustrated, idealistic young people, some of them quite intelligent.
Another one is Congressman Walter Jones of NC. Characteristic of such people is that they are sincere, articulate, and hold to their principles. I even agree with them in principle on some things, they sometimes support things I support, for example Ron Paul against Iraq War, but they are operating on a totally doctrinaire level that has no relation to any effective political reality. Everything is black and white.
Grover Norquist would seem to be another such — a doctrinaire, flat-out libertarian.
So maybe there’s another category, true believer.
…but they are operating on a totally doctrinaire level that has no relation to any effective political reality. Everything is black and white.
So, kinda somewhere between stupid and crazy.
“A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.” George Bernard Shaw
PA governor Tom “Pass the scotch” Corbett is an evil crazy stupid asshole.
The college student son of one of my coworkers has a number of Coulter’s books, which he apparently sees as thoughtful commentary. Sigh.
A college education ain’t what it used to be.
Seriously, though, there’s a big emphasis on “critical thinking” these days. Unfortunately, it’s easy to teach young people to be CRITICAL (they incline that way by nature, in case you hadn’t noticed), but it’s hard to teach them to actually THINK. So that might explain the attraction of people like Ann Coulter and Ayn Rand.
Well,I’m a bit sad to see my state’s congressional delegation placed wholesale in the batso division. I guess with the likes of Gingery, Broun, Westmoreland, Kingston, Price, and Graves we do tilt a good ways towards the crazy. Sadly, we’ve been gerrymandered to have an overwhelming GOP bent to our representation. Only 5 of 14 are Dems in a state that a decade ago was pretty evenly split. We need a grassroots Democratic party which can begin fielding some opposition to these largely unopposed right wingers.
In your GOP delegation, Jack Kingston is what passes for sane. I suspect he is more in the asshole category.
I agree, Kingston is an asshole.
Is there something in the water down there?
Could be. Seriously, this state is run by white males of a certain subset. There are currently NO women holding any statewide elective office, much less one in the congressional delegation. At this point, I’d even take a GOP female, but, on second thought, maybe not. We’d likely end up with another Karen Handel.
Hey, I know John Barrow is a blue blue dog, but, golly gee, any white male who can win reelection, after being in the GOP’s rifle sights for the last couple of elections, must have decent political talents. Particularly in a state that’s so heavily Republican that it’s almost heresy to be a Democrat. I know people look at me strangely when they find out I don’t support Republicans of any stripe. Everyone just assumes that one has to be a Republican, even if they themselves grew up as supporters,as most of us did, of the Democratic party back in the 50’s and 60’s.
I have no doubt if she thought it would make her more money, Ann Coulter would say crazy nasty leftwing stuff. Of course that’s not going to happen, but it’s all about been mean and getting rich.
Assholes: McConnell, Cantor, Peter King, Romney.
Stupid: W, Boehner, Paul Ryan, Rick Perry, Mark Sanford.
Crazy: Virginia Foxx
Evil Crazy Assholes: Santorum, Roger Ailes, Wayne LaPierre, Grover Norquist.
These are really Cunning Assholes distinct from BooMan’s Mere Assholes or Total Assholes, and Stupid-Identified (or Stupid By Choice) rather than Mere Stupid. (Except Perry is Beyond Stupid). As usual when you start classifying you find that the world is rich in variety.
The breakdown is actually helpful in understanding the role each plays in the American version of radicalization.
Maybe it’s the Marathon bombers who have brought it home? Watching their mother in her strained version of conspiracies; her dedication to the denialism she seems to glean from her religion; her abject misinformation; her striking words of wonder that her sons were shot.
From her to your list, the lens they all operate is one to turn away from facts for an ulterior purpose that is nothing more than self serving.
I don’t think Mrs Tsarnaev is the best example. People in that part of the world have good reason for conspiracy theories. Namely, there are a lot of conspiracies. The continuing tradition of the Third Section of the Imperial Chancery — Okhrana — GPU — KGB — FSB, not to mention the wonderful history of the Russians in the Caucasus.
Of course here in the United States, where conspiracies are unknown, no one should ever suspect them.
You can also use this to examine individual topics. For example, take attitudes about climate change and how they differ within each group.
Attitudes of Republicans Towards Climate Change
ASSHOLES: I’ll be dead before it matters, so who cares? Besides, the energy industries bankroll our party.
THE STUPID: The Sun might be responsible. Or maybe God wants it this way. Scientists have different opinions.
THE CRAZY: It’s a liberal conspiracy. They just want to take away our light bulbs and cars and force everyone to live in their crime-infested cities.
EVIL CRAZY ASSHOLES: let’s capture some oilfields!!
Not sure your schema works for me.
There are people who genuinely are concerned about the country and their fellow mankind. Their interest in politics is to humbly serve the greater good because they understand the greater good has and will serve them.
They are not very much to be found today in the GOP, but they did exist at one time.
Then there are those who are concerned for others and the greater good but only because others don’t conform to what they believe (without much actual evidence) to be the “right way of living”. They are hardly humble except to blindly comply with codes and principles. Much thinking and evidence is to be avoided because it will only cause you to pause in following principles which much smarter people than you and perhaps God Himself set forth.
They are a pain in the ass, often dangerous, and usually an obstacle to any real change. These are the batshit crazy. Or they can just be incompetent. W was incompetent, but I don’t think very crazy. He just followed what he thought the “rules and principles” are.
Then there are the clueless and scared. They have their position but they are scared of losing it. They don’t have an endgame. They react in the moment to whatever threat they see — whether it be to their political career or a vast Muslim assualt on Western values — based on a blip in poll number or an obscure YouTube video of a few Arabs saying stupid hateful things. Whatever it is, they are not thinking about what is proactive, good and competent government and policy. They aren’t thinking much at all.
And then there are the racist, class-conscious, entitled assholes. They can be rednecks or C-Suite members. They can be emptying a six-pack at a NASCAR race or tuna fishing on a million dollar yaght, or proudly watching their offspring “beat Harvard” at Crew on Carnegie Lake.
They lack humility and are generally insecure enough to believe that everything they have they are truly entitled to because they earned it all on their own. And if you don’t have the same it is because you didn’t earn it and because of that you are of less worth as a human being.
The greater good is outside of their comprehension. It does not compute though they might feel better about themselves that they have something to donate because they earned enough to have extra. That is different than genuine charity which is to give whatever and whenever it is needed.
Assholeness plays no favorites. It strikes like drug addiction, not caring what class, race, creed, sex, education, intelligence, etc. you are. Some of all of these people seem to be immune and some pitifully consumed by it.
Assholes can’t stand to be told they are wrong and are driven to show everyone they are right. Always. Perhaps worse than the bat shit crazy you can’t complromise with them because they see it as weak.
Who fits where? Hard to say. TRump I think would be a bleeding heart liberal if he thought it would raise his ratings and twitter followers. He just wants headlines. Rush is absolutely an asshole… who wants ratings and will hang the GOP ou to dry if it will get him an Arbitron point. Breitbart was an asshole. Bachmann and King are both principled and scared so they sit in two camps.
Boo, the first sentence of this post really ought to go on your masthead…
Except it’s not Kinds of Crazy – it’s Kinds of Conservatives.
It’s amazing how well the Asshole, Stupid, Crazy system works. I think evil and asshole can be combined – Cheney is an asshole, Bush is stupid, Rumsfeld is crazy, Rove is an asshole, Rice is stupid, Baucus is an asshole, Feinstein is an asshole, Lieberman is THE asshole, McCain, Graham – assholes – most of the corporate democrats are assholes. I think Rand Paul is crazy, not stupid, however. Perry, Romney, Cain – all stupid. Romney might not have a low IQ but his ability to perceive is marred – hence stupid – I mean, sooo stupid, that one.
A hard one to classify is Paul Ryan. I’m leaning towards stupid, but he’s definitely an asshole and crazy. But I think the fact that his ideas are swatted down so angrily shows that he’s stupid for ever thinking that presenting them was a good idea.
I think to merit inclusion in the Crazy category a person needs to not be stupid. Hence, Palin is crazy as a bedbug but her stupidity trumps that. Both Pauls, Rumsfeld, Santorum, Kristol, Friedman … who else? Ah, of course:
Barack Obama is crazy – he keeps ignoring Krugman and he keeps getting proven wrong. He will never be on a ballot again and he continues to do things that will damages him legacy and the people who elected him. He’s definitely not an asshole and he’s definitely not stupid, but he fits the classic definition of crazy – keeps making the same mistake and expecting a different outcome.
Thought leaders? More like thoughtless leaders.
Where does he fall in your typology? Or his father, George?
It’s too easy and probably wrong to paint them as assholes, because then we’re assuming our conclusion — that all Republicans are assholes, if not crazy or stupid.
See also, Batocchio at Vagabond Scholar:
http://vagabondscholar.blogspot.com/2010/11/stupid-evil-crazy-vortex.html
Enjoyed that – thanks.
I’ll nominate Rick Scott, I.E. evil, devious, asshole.