A Republican Party too conservative for Ronald Reagan

By Richard K. Barry

You may have seen this, but I need to post it to help myself stay sane, if it's not already too late.

The House Democratic Caucus has released a new video in order to encourage Congress to do the right thing on the debt ceiling. It is hardly what one would expect, given the source, or maybe it tells us all we need to know about how insane the current crop of Republicans really are.

It's a 1987 radio address by Ronald Reagan in which he raised the concern that "Congress consistently brings the Government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility."

As Steve Benen writes:

The point of the video, of course, is to drive home the point that [the Republican Party] is no longer the party of Reagan. Indeed, Republicans in 2011 recognize the Reagan legacy and deliberately reject it. These are folks who claim to have a religious-like reverence for "Ronaldus Magnus," but have no use for his style of governance.

I'm not even sure what I want to say about this other than the fact that one of the most conservative politicians of my lifetime is far too moderate for what has become of the Republican Party, and that should scare the hell out of all of us.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)