From 0 To Dumbass In No Time At All

Putting the "dumb" in the Freedumb Caucus

When Bush was a presidential candidate, his grasp of the threats facing America suggested that one of the greatest might be him. Believing that “a key to foreign policy is to rely on reliance,” he said, “There is madmen in the world, and there are terror.” (Since he also asked, famously, “Is our children learning?” one expected that his first official act as president would be to cancel the agreement between subjects and verbs.) His attempt to make sense of the post–Cold War world resulted in this heaping bowl of word porridge: “When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us vs. them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they’re there.”

Andy Borowitz, Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber

There’s a trend I’ve been noticing lately, and it’s not one that reflects well on Republicans. Not that this should come as a surprise, I suppose; Republicans have a way of accentuating the absolute worst in anything they do.

This trend was particularly noticeable during the clusterfuck that was the Republican attempt to elect a Speaker of the House. Normally, electing a Speaker is a fait accompli, a formality; by the time the majority party gets to the point of electing a Speaker, the proceedings are down to one candidate. So all that’s left is the speechifying, the huzzahs, the cheering, and the hearty pats on the back.