Having a black president is emboldening the GOP to run against the people

The Republicans have always had a "you voters should be feed into a grinder as food for our pedigreed dogs" message buried in their hokum.

But for the last few years the party has been OVERT in that message. They address crowds of middle class people to brag that they will break them—wring out their last cent to give to outlandish James Bond villain billionaires.

It is not a sensible political message.

But the reality is that the republicans are guaranteed more than 55% of the white vote and of the over-65 vote. There is nothing they could say or do that would result in Obama winning the white vote or the over-65 vote. Ron Paul, the most overtly demented candidate in many a moon, would win the white vote handily even after people found out everything about him.

John Kerry wasn't any more numerically popular with older white voters than Obama is today. Having a black president has not made the old-white-reactionary vote so much larger. It has just made it unmovable. Absolute. Think of it this way, they would vote against Kerry once and they would vote against Obama ten times, but they only get one vote either way.

The increased intensity (not size) of the anti-Obama vote has meant that it honestly doesn't matter what Republicans say or do. (Or appears to not matter.) And this disconnect from all acountability has allowed the Republicans to drift into arrogant candor with minmal negative feedback. 2010 was about an Obama-hating base. The 2012 primaries are about an Obama-hating base. Given the circles they run in, I think they have forgotten that it is possible for somebody to like Obama.

This is the only way I can explain the mask-dropping. Who votes unanimously to end medicare? It's nuts. But if seniors are prepared to vote for anything, up to and including a bunny with a pancake on his head, to protest Obama then I guess you can vote to end medicare. The horrible people that come to your rallies will not turn on you.

One hopes that their over-reach catches up with them in the general election. The lizard-brain anti-Obama vote is large and entrenched but it is not, by itself, enough to win with.