“The GOP’s metamorphosis from…the stupid party into [one] that is both stupid and useless is almost complete.”

Just
a few months ago, when Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) became the
House Majority Leader, he announced the the GOP would allow the
Export-Import Bank, which subsidizes purchases of goods made by
politically connected U.S. firms, to expire “because it’s something
the private sector can be able to do.”

That was then. The budget resolution approved by Congress
yesterday not only continues funding for the Export-Import Bank, it
signed off on the Iraq-Syria War of 2014 without actually putting
the matter to a constitutionally mandated vote:

The GOP, which claims to be the party that pledges maniacal
fealty to the Constitution, can’t be bothered to push for a
declaration of war, but it’s happy to shovel more borrowed money
toward a dodgy group of Syrians. “I frankly think the president’s
request is a sound one,” Speaker of the House John Boehner
told The Washington Times. The only real disagreement
among Republicans is whether to put American soldiers on the ground
to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, which appears to be what Sen. John
McCain is pushing for.

In a new column for

The Daily Beast, I argue that the GOP’s inability to stand
for anything other than occasional attempts to screw poor people,
vilify brown people, and demagogue gays and lesbians is the main
reason its once-seeming lock on taking the Senate has
disappeared:

As the differences between the two parties are blunted, it’s no
wonder that Republican chances for retaking the Senate are
evaporating faster than those anticipated federal surpluses in the
early Aughts. “Democrats now have a 51 percent chance of holding
the Senate,” reports The Washington Post’s Chris
Cillizza, who notes that just a few months ago, the odds were
better than 80 percent that the Republicans would pick up six seats
to gain a majority in both houses of Congress….

In a two-party system, we’re effectively down to one party that
wants to keep spending essentially the same and to start a new war
without having to go on the record as voting for it or against it.
No wonder that just 25 percent of Americans identify as
Republican, according to Gallup, and the GOP probably won’t win the
Senate despite appalling poll numbers for Obama’s Democrats.
Because when you go from being stupid to being useless, voters are
smart to stick with the status quo, no matter how miserable it
might be.

Whole thing here.