Schizophrenia—an impairment in social cognition which is associated with paranoia and social isolation.
Paranoia, which is a major symptom of schizophrenia, is a mental condition in which the person often loses touch with reality. Here is some of what Wikipedia says about this condition:
Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. (e.g. “Everyone is out to get me.”) Making false accusations and the general distrust of others also frequently accompany paranoia. For example, an incident most people would view as an accident or coincidence, a paranoid person might believe was intentional.
I don’t know about you but if someone were to give me this description without a name I would say this clearly describes the people who are currently attempting to hi-jack the Republican party. Before I go any further I want to make it clear that I am not saying that everyone who wears the Republican mantel are paranoid schizophrenics. In fact I am sure the vast majority who wear that label are not. But I am also sure that many of those who are attempting a hostile take-over that party are indeed paranoid about many things.
I just finished watch a town hall meeting that John McCain had recently in Arizona and some of the questions and speeches made there were down right disturbing! People were calling him all kinds of nasty names. They were wagging their fingers at him (that seems to be a signature of the tea party folks) and telling him he was dead wrong about immigration. Their solution it seems was to basically gun down anyone who is an “illegal alien” on the Arizona streets if they refused to self-deport. Many of their words started with “Those people” and ended with some paranoid action. I was surprised how Mr. McCain maintained his composure. When one person in the group stated that “all we have to do is take away their welfare checks and all those illegals will go back to where they came from!”, Mr. McCain correctly pointed out that the vast majority of undocumented are not on welfare. Then he made the statement, “you are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts”. Nice comeback John.
I’m sure that many in the GOP are as frightened of these new players in their party as are the rest of us. But those now lamenting moderate Republicans must remember that they are the ones who created this Frankenstein. They unleashed him in order to try to win some seats in the 2011 house. I wish they had thought it through before cuddling up to the Tea Party radicals.
So, what are the options for the majority who make up the GOP? There are really only two; 1) Abandon it, 2) Reform it. Obviously the easiest is just to abandon it and call yourself and independent. That is what so many of the 18 – 29 year olds did in the 2012 election. They left in droves. Reforming it will take a lot more effort. It is just very hard to put the genie back in the bottle.
I will finish of with saying that yes the Democrats also have a radical fringe in their party. The difference is that the Democratics generally keep their crazies locked away in a rubber room somewhere in the far back of the house where as the Republicans gave their radicals the key to the front door….
RJ's Corner 
You must have missed the Democratic convention; :;)
You assume that those people complaining about immigration are Rpublicans.
Arizona has had loads of ideas on how to control immigration including working cards- which is very reasonable and was used in the 1950’s.
Arizona is also the brunt of the immigration problem because they are not allowed to have a defect it so they simply close public hospitals when they run out of money, which means no one gets served. They are English only, but hold school in the fields and sweep often to get kids to school with a hot meal at breakfast. Those were hurt by loss of property taxes (which are really low).
Hard not to be schizoid when you are trying to balance between feeding all and feeding no one.
Arizona has some of the most progressive Churches in the nation. Maybe you should go visit- they could use your tax revenue!
Oh yes, you title says, basically, it is the Republicans, but truly we are just talking people.
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Jane, you seem to be close to the edge so I will let you have the final word here. Try to have a good day. I hope the sun shines on you. It is rather dreary here.
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Yep. I agree with Janette, that it is basically the Repubs, but true with so many people. As I have said before, fear and loathing (aka “tribalism”?) is an easy sell and a familiar one that does not ask one to do all that much thinking or truly spiritual living. I am still so astonished at all those people (of so many different persuasions) who claim to be so deeply religious while at the same time “preaching” so much hate. What a toxic world they are advocating. The term paranoia seems right here.
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Right on Steve….. I don’t claim that Republicans are the exclusive owners of paranoia. There is more than enough to go around. But being a liberal it is my duty to point it out in my conservative friends. 😉
I too am astonished at all the hate that comes from some who claim to be religious; it is the opposite of what God taught us. I just used a reference to a post I made several months ago about lazy minds. ( https://rjscorner.net/2012/11/11/what-is-the-saddest-thing-in-this-world-2/ ) . As the title says that is the saddest thing in the world to me.
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I agree with your support for Senator McCain. Most border state politicians, of either party, have sensible non-racist ideas about immigration reform. I think, though, that you have incorrectly identified the unelectable fringe of the Republican party.
The tea party movement is mainly about cutting taxes, and that has substantial public support. What drives people away are Republican attitudes toward civil rights, e.g., gays, women, ethnic minorities and in particular, abortion. I know plenty of gays and Latinos, for instance, who are fiscally conservative but will not vote Republican for this reason.
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Welcome Jeremiah. Of course we all have our own versions of what represents the fringes of both parties. I agree that the issues you mentioned do drive many from the Republican party. The Tea party that I have seen for the last two years is about much more than being fiscally conservative. There was just too much hate bashing going on at the steps of the Capital from them for me. I consider myself a fiscally prudent progressive so we might have that in common. The main difference is that I don’t want to balance the budgets by shutting down government or on the backs of the poor and that seems to be their main agenda.
Yes, in some circles I’m sure the Tea Party has substantial public support but having been exposed to Mr. Mordouch who was a proud Tea Party candidate in my State I saw enough to thoroughly turn me off. Maybe the screamers and radicals who are currently the face of this new wing are not representative of the majority? If that is the case then they have a massive PR problem that needs fixing.
I do agree with Senator McCain on some of his immigration stands but that is about the only thing. He is much too hawkish for me.
Come back often with your comments. As long as you keep your words civil we can have a spirited debate.
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