It seems that around 50% of the American population are delighting in the licensed irrationality promoted by the Republican Party and extreme right wing. “Facts? Phooey! Think? Why bother? Let’s raise some hell!” This behavior is, of course, being modeled by our former president and his Republican punks in Congress, in slavish state legislatures, and everywhere dim and angry people assemble. Half the nation has gone on a spree of thoughtlessness and impulse driven speech, acts, and opinions. Insanity has become our pop-culture.

What I wonder is: Is this self-indulgent thoughtlessness and willful stupidity a fad, like Prohibition and the KuKluxKlan, or is it to be a long-lasting feature, if not a determinant, of American life? If the latter, it is more than an embarrassment. It is a grave weakness and internal threat to our national security. For no foreign power antagonistic to the United States is likely to be constrained by any national unity, gravity, and common resolve on our part, but will be encouraged by our current disarray.