Quote of the Day

MANIFESTO

"We are getting precariously close to fracturing an institution where no one wins."

— Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) on the rancor that currently exists in the US Senate

To be sure, the Republicans have always had demagogues, but currently every Republican senator is guilty of demagoguery, and no one seems to care.

At least when Joe McCarthy told US Army General Ralph Zwicker that he was "not fit to wear that uniform," people properly felt that the Wisconsin opportunist had crossed a political and ethical line.

Today, when a US Senator suggests that it'd be better if a colleague died, the only ripples that appear are on the Internets. Certainly, the offending senator's constituents think nothing of it—and probably think it's an appealing prospect.

I don't think we're close to any kind of civil war, but at this point, the only consolation in the current political morass is that only one in five Americans identify themselves as Republicans.