Republicans listening to Erick Erickson, of course

The best way to understand Republicans' stubborn refusal to compromise at all on the debt ceiling

Published July 15, 2011 3:10PM (EDT)

Oh, wonderful. Dave Weigel says House Republicans are passing around a brilliant Erick Erickson post arguing that they should blow up the entire U.S. economy because Obama will get the blame.

The thesis:

Should the United States lose its bond rating, it will be called the “Obama Depression”. Congress does not get pinned with this stuff.

Hah. Ha ha ha. Just like the "Clinton government shutdown" that was not at all blamed on Newt Gingrich. No one ever blames Congress for stuff! Americans love Congress far, far too much to blame them for things.

Of course Erick Erickson's analysis of the debt ceiling situation is simplistic, incorrect, and stupid. Erick Erickson wrote it. He's a clown. When he's not making incredibly stupid Hitler analogies or threatening to scare census workers with shotguns or calling on citizens to beat lawmakers to a "bloody pulp" over dishwasher detergent regulations, Erick Erickson is generally weeping salty tears of imagined victimhood over people calling him on the dumb shit he constantly says and writes.

And he's incredibly influential among Republican activists and, apparently, Republican members of Congress. I am not surprised by this, at all. I bet your average GOP legislator reads RedState and listens to Rush and watches Fox, just like your average politically minded conservative citizen.

Here's Barney Frank's media diet: The New York Times, National Journal, the Capitol Hill papers, and The Economist if he finds the time. He doesn't care for blogs.

This is one of the reasons why politics is basically impossible. Can you imagine if the Democrats only ever read Kos and watched Ed Schultz? That would make a lot of bloggers happy, sure, but most elected Democrats are actively repulsed by liberal commentators. They read "objective" newspapers and listen to NPR, while Republicans mainline the same noxious, misleading propaganda as their base. (I mean, Mitch McConnell probably reads grown-up newspapers, but Republicans have not seemed very interested in Mitch McConnell's debt ceiling plan.)

Anyway, keep reading Erick Erickson, Republicans! Sure, you'll ruin the entire country, but he will also lead the Republican party right into a hilarious and devastating political meltdown. Since we're all probably screwed anyway we may as well enjoy ourselves.


By Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene

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