The Closing of the Conservative Mind

(or the Nervous Breakdown of the GOP )

Yesterday I wrote about the good shows of 2012.

One I failed to mention was "The Colbert Report" which along with "The Daily Show" had a good year. American Conservatives provided them with ample material.

Just off the top of my head, there was the Republican primary where primary voters went from candidate to candidate (Perry then Gingrich then Cain then Bachmann then Trump(!) (probably not the right order)) trying to find an alternative to Romney. This had the effect of driving Romney to the right.

There was the CATO putsch.  DeLong had a good title: "THE FIGHT OVER THE CATO INSTITUTE: JUDEAN PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT/PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT OF JUDEA BLOGGING"

The attacks on Bernanke by Rick Perry, Romney, etc.

Matt O'Brien coined  "The Age of Niallism" in reference to Nial Ferguson, his Newsweek cover story on Obama, and the "post-fact world."

Republican Senate candidate Akin's medival views on "legitimate rape."

Romney telling his rich crank donor base what they want to hear about the 47 percent in the tank for Obama.

The rhetorical assault on Nate Silver. ("He has no special sauce." No, but his projections were right again.) The assault on the Bureau of Labor Statistics by Jack Welch among others.

And finally, the way the Romney campaign was caught by surprise on election night. There is no engagement with facts coming from the other side. Karl Rove among others was sure they won.

Michael Barone rationalized their error with the classic (see above on the masthead) nonsensical explanation "What happened? I think fundamentals were trumped by mechanics and, to a lesser extent, by demographics."

I think what he was trying to say is that Democrats were able to turn out the growing numbers of blacks and latinos and they overcame the fundamental conservatism of America. But demographics and the mechanics (of the electoral college for example) are fundamental to elections.

Some reality broke through via Megyn Kelly who contradicted Rove in real time on Fox News and Chief Justice Roberts breaking ranks with his conservative colleagues on Obamacare.

Although Roberts opined that past court opinions on the Commerce Clause were probably wrong, thereby invalidating the New Deal.

So it could have been worse had Kelly, Fox News and Roberts not chosen to bend instead of breaking. Still, are we witnessing the popping of the conservative political bubble?