"In the Age of Obama, Republicans Become the Party of Crazy"

Good article in USNEWS. It's from February 2011, but more relevant than ever...

"I'm becoming worried that the Republican Party is cracking up. I don't mean the long-running split whose latest manifestation is the Tea Party's push to purge. No, I'm afraid that the GOP is literally going crazy.

Back in 2003, the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer coined the phrase "Bush Derangement Syndrome" to describe the irrational reactions the 43rd president aroused in critics. The 1990s were rife with "Clinton Derangement Syndrome," as the president was accused of crimes ranging from running a cocaine smuggling ring to arranging for the murder of aide Vincent Foster, among others.

But under the tenure of Barack Obama, political derangement syndrome seems to have metastasized

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The Obama strain of political derangement syndrome is not confined to birtherism or even to Obama directly, though the antifederalism animating it is at least an indirect reaction to him. Indeed, his election has coincided with a lunatic renaissance. GOPers have, to various extents, embraced the loopy narrative that they are fighting an existential threat, not only to the nation, but to liberty itself. Obama is not merely too liberal but is actually illegitimate; the healthcare law is not just ill-conceived but a malevolent attempt to nationalize the healthcare system; and so on. Given that they have cast themselves as the literal and figurative heirs to the original Tea Party revolutionaries, it is perhaps no surprise that they are increasingly reaching back to 19th and 18th century policies."

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2011/02/23/in-the-age-of-obama-republicans-become-the-party-of-crazy