There are very, very few senators I would call a nutcase, but Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is one.  A few days ago he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that started out ridiculous [emphasis added]:

I spoke with thousands of voters at town-hall meetings this summer. What I gathered from them is that it’s not just the proposed overhaul of health care that has them upset. Many also expressed a sense of betrayal. In spite of their hope for change, it still appears that the government in Washington is run for its own benefit and the benefit of special interests—not for the benefit of the American people. The folks I met with also don’t trust politicians in Washington to address mounting long-term challenges to our economy. It’s not just the attendees of town-halls meetings in Oklahoma.

“In spite of their hope for change” they now feel betrayed?  It’s as if Oklahomans were on the Obama Express last year, and now they have been let down like a bunch of liberals.  That’s an amazingly disingenuous way to start an opinion piece.  Oklahoma is what you could call a wing-nut state, and they have a wing-nut as a Senator.  From Wikipedia:

Oklahoma, one of the reddest states in the nation, was far from a swing state in 2008. A strongly conservative state located in the Bible Belt where evangelical Christianity plays a large role, Oklahoma has swung and trended more to the Republicans in recent years than any other state. Having voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election since 1968, Oklahoma once again showcased its status as a Republican stronghold in 2008 with Republican John McCain capturing 65.65% of the vote while Democrat Barack Obama took in the remaining 34.35%.

Look at Coburn in relation to public idiot William Kostric, who brought a loaded gun to a healthcare debate.  If you watch Kostric on Chris Matthews, he can barely answer any question cogently.  He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he’s unable to back up his beliefs, but he’s armed with opinions and loaded weapons:

Kostric, who carried a sign that read “It is time to water the tree of liberty”, said he “wanted to be heard” because Americans are losing a lot of rights in this country.

When asked by Matthews to name those rights, Kostric can only reply “a litany” yet can’t name a single one before expressing surprise that Obama is a Constitutional scholar.  Kostric hasn’t demonstrated he understands anything about the Constitution and our civil liberties at all, except that he gets to carry a gun like a Big Man.

"Because I can do it," he said when asked why he was armed outside a hall where Obama spoke about healthcare.

He just “believes” we’re losing rights, and on the right-wing that’s all it takes:  belief.  It’s one thing to hang on to belief when there are few facts; but when you hang on to beliefs that contradict all facts, it only makes you a fool.

Kostric’s sign paraphrased Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”  Timothy McVeigh, who murdered 168 people in Coburn’s home state because of his right-wing paranoia, had the Jefferson quote on his T-shirt.  Surely Oklahoma Senator  Coburn would express concern when right-wingers are arming themselves and showing up at public discussions:

The Phoenix Police originally said three persons were spotted with guns in downtown Phoenix near Obama’s appearance and later upped that count to 12.

Actually, Coburn defends them.  From Frank Rich:

[L]ast Sunday, when asked by David Gregory on “Meet the Press” if he was troubled by current threats of “violence against the government,” Coburn blamed not the nuts but the government.

“Well, I’m troubled any time when we stop having confidence in our government,” the senator said, “but we’ve earned it.”

Coburn is nothing if not consistent. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, he was part of a House contingent that helped delay and soften an antiterrorism bill. This cohort even tried to strip out a provision blocking domestic fund-raising by foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas. Why? The far right, in league with the National Rifle Association, was angry at the federal government for aggressively policing America’s self-appointed militias. In a 1996 floor speech, Coburn conceded that “terrorism obviously poses a serious threat,” but then went on to explain that the nation had worse threats to worry about: “There is a far greater fear that is present in this country, and that is fear of our own government.” As his remarks on “Meet the Press” last week demonstrated, the subsequent intervention of 9/11 has not changed his worldview.

[....]

Coburn’s implicit rationalization for far-right fanatics bearing arms at presidential events — the government makes them do it! — cannot stand. He’s not a radio or Fox News bloviator paid a fortune to be outrageous; he’s a card-carrying member of the United States Senate.

It’s hard to fathom how to make sense of how the right wing thinks any more.  We are only 8 months into a new Presidency that is trying to fix the mess of the previous administration, and now Republicans are speaking as if they aren’t the ones who got us where we are today.

I used to understand their point-of-view, but now the mainstream of the Republican party is so divorced from reason, education and history that it’s difficult to formulate responses to their views.  Maybe that’s the point.  While that might work well as a sugar rush to tongue-tie reasoned opposition with stupidity, it certainly isn’t a good strategy to get back into power.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” — Abraham Lincoln

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