If the GOP Isn't

a cult, then it's a party full of cultists:

A more significant mystery is why Democrats nationally don't make better use of the GOP's periodic episodes of paranoia. While it's impossible to anticipate the exact content of its delusions -- comparing Obama to Hitler and Korean strongman Kim Jong Il, "Birthers" denying his citizenship, "death panels," White House "czars," etc. -- their appearance should come as no surprise.

After all, millions of Americans are attracted to "End Times" narratives as theology and popular entertainment. Not for nothing did Tim LaHaye's ponderously bad "Left Behind" sell millions of copies. How thrilling to imagine that one's humdrum existence has cosmic meaning. Of course, it's questionable how deeply people investing in life insurance policies and 30-year mortgages actually believe that stuff.

It's much the same with the far right's political delusions. How many seriously believe that Democrats favor euthanasia? Relatively few.

But you can't beat something with nothing. Which is why the Democrats' collective failure to develop a strong counter-narrative remains so bewildering. Are they waiting for what Eric Alterman calls the So Called Liberal Media to step up?

That's never going to happen. To cable TV, in particular, politics is a carnival sideshow; they're peddling tickets. Countering one falsehood at a time keeps Democrats constantly on the defensive. People need to be told a competing story: Who's deceiving them, and why. Take "death panels." Who first concocted the lie? Who pays her? Where does the money come from?

The Democrats are once again sitting back and taking it. It's inexcusable to not fight back.

Paul Krugman

also notices the GOP is back to its same old tricks with Obama.

Obama proved he was and is naive as hell to think Democrats can hold hands with the Republicans and sing "Kumbaya" and rise above nasty partisanship. It can't happen, and it won't happen.

If he doesn't wake up soon, he will find out he will be a one-term president.

Last week, Mr. Grassley claimed that his colleague Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor wouldn’t have been treated properly in other countries because they prefer to “spend money on people who can contribute more to the economy.” This week, he told an audience that “you have every right to fear,” that we “should not have a government-run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.”

Again, that’s what a supposedly centrist Republican, a member of the Gang of Six trying to devise a bipartisan health plan, sounds like.

So much, then, for Mr. Obama’s dream of moving beyond divisive politics. The truth is that the factors that made politics so ugly in the Clinton years — the paranoia of a significant minority of Americans and the cynical willingness of leading Republicans to cater to that paranoia — are as strong as ever. In fact, the situation may be even worse than it was in the 1990s because the collapse of the Bush administration has left the G.O.P. with no real leaders other than Rush Limbaugh.