Gang of thugs

I have mentioned here before that I long for the days when those I disagreed with were at least rational, something the current crop of elected Republicans can't be accused of. Well John Cole found this interview with former Republican majority leader Dick Army.

When pressed by Sager about what he feels is wrong with today’s Republican Congress, Armey – who became majority leader when the GOP took control of Congress in 1994 and retired in 2003 – said: "The criteria of choice in just about every behavior you see in Congress today is politics. Where in the hell did this Terri Schiavo thing come from? There’s not a conservative, Constitution-loving, separation-of-powers guy alive in the world that could have wanted that bill on the floor.



"That was pure, blatant pandering to James Dobson. That’s all it was. It was silly, stupid, and irresponsible. Nobody serious about the Constitution would do that. But the question was will this energize our Christian conservative base for the next election.”


Sager asked why it seems that Christian conservatives are more powerful now than in the 1990s. Armey replied: "To a large extent because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies. I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There’s a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn’t work unless it’s dumb . . . These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic.”

I think commentor Eural over at John's place comes close to getting it right.

You know what these guys want – a return to the good ole days. And by that I mean England circa 1650. It strikes me that our government is rapidly devolving into Cromwell’s England – everything purified legally to be in accordance with their interpretation of religious scripture while kicking ass and taking names with overseas military campaigns against those other nasty heretics (back then the Irish, today the Muslims).