Richard Posner, a Reagan nominated judge who sits on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, told NPR, “I’ve become less conservative since the Republican Party started becoming goofy”. He has basically echoed a sentiment we have heard from many other former Republicans. Let’s face it, the party is losing their mind.

Of course the GOP will refuse to hear that and write it off as the “liberal media” planting some crazy ideas in the heads of people. You know, that “liberal media” that all gets together with the sole goal of discrediting America’s right. They even hold secret meetings, complete with decoder rings and a super-secret handshake.

Yes, this is the thinking of Republicans today and it is “goofy”.

Or maybe you heard this one? Back in the early 60s, a African family developed this plan. They would breed a child and then convince the state of Hawaii to forge a birth certificate, just so he can become President some 40+ years later. I bet John Grisham is pissed he didn’t come up with that plot!

Then there’s the main issue Posner was hitting; John Roberts healthcare decision:

“Because if you put [yourself] in his position … what’s he supposed to think? That he finds his allies to be a bunch of crackpots? Does that help the conservative movement? I mean, what would you do if you were Roberts? All the sudden you find out that the people you thought were your friends have turned against you, they despise you, they mistreat you, they leak to the press. What do you do? Do you become more conservative? Or do you say, ‘What am I doing with this crowd of lunatics?‘ Right? Maybe you have to re-examine your position.”

The different conspiracies that the right pushed after Roberts’ decision totally blew my mind. They ranged from his medications being off to Obama secretly forcing him to vote for the act. Some of these ideas weren’t just pushed on obscure blogs, but rather by bloggers who also appear on Fox News and are guests on national radio shows.

I really think calling today’s Republicans “goofy” is an extreme understatement. The correct term terminology would be “bat shit crazy”, because that is what they have become. Everything they don’t agree with or don’t understand is some master conspiracy that could have come out of the X Files. They have lost the ability to rationally debate the issues and can only resort to the extreme of paranoia thinking.

What today’s Republican Party needs is a real leader. They need someone out there who can say “stop the silly talk, we have enough real issues that we can go with”. But no one is willing to do that. They are scared of the biggest pushers of these conspiracies there is, Rush Limbaugh and company.

I have said in the past that our nation is quickly becoming Idiocracy, and the more we let the crazies of the right be heard, the quicker our transition will occur. I just wish there was a way we could stop this from happening, but sadly I don’t see how. In the meantime, I will thank Richard Posner for pointing out the obvious, even if his own party won’t listen. I just fear for the attacks he will get from the right for speaking the truth, because that’s all the right has – attacks.