Quick(ish) take: The clown show goes from Cesar Romero to Heath Ledger

 Hey, remember Michele Bachmann?  I miss her.  A decade ago, she was the face of the Republicans' crazy-caucus in the House of Representatives.  Yeah, she was toxic, but she was also kind of endearingly kooky and hilarious.  Yeah, she spewed McCarthyist nonsense about a supposed need to investigate anti-Americanism among political leaders, but when she gave the "Tea Party" response to Obama's "State of the Union," it was so badly staged that she was staring off into space instead of into the camera.  Yes, Bachmann was terrible, and vile, but it was just so hard to take her seriously, and so easy to think of her as almost cuddly in her ineptitude.  (And her husband!  Oh, he was fabulous!)  It was like that episode of Buffy about the fear demon, revealed at the end to be just a few inches tall.  Xander made coo-ing noises at it while it raged, and Giles told him to stop.  Why, Xander asked?  Giles told him that it was tacky.  Yeah, it's tacky to speak in such diminutive terms about the old days of Michele Bachmann, and her era of clownishness, but I miss it.

Back when she and her ilk were in ascendance, I was-a-havin' fun.  Fun with Google's auto-complete feature.  You can't do this anymore, because those killjoys at Google are a bunch of spoil-sports, but here's what I did.  I typed a couple of names into Google to see what kind of auto-completes I would get.  Bachmann, Palin, and a few others.  Oh, the auto-completes were glorious.  So, statistician that I am, I put together a data set and wrote a paper.  I typed in the names of every Member of Congress, House and Senate, and tested to see if Google would auto-complete any of the following epithets, indicating that enough people were conducting those searches:  idiot, stupid, moron, insane, nuts, crazy and batshit crazy.

I then looked at the statistical predictors of epithet suggestions, the effects on fundraising, and eventual vote shares.  Then... I published it, and even though I'm not a metal-head, I used an Ozzy reference in the title, because hey, music.  "Going Off The Rails On A Crazy Train: The Causes And Consequences Of Congressional Infamy."

So let's be clear.  Bachmann and people like her corrode the political system, even in their clownishness, but they are laughable villains.  Cesar Romero Jokers.

Marjorie Taylor Greene flat-out calls for the execution of Democrats while spreading QAnon bullshit.  She isn't funny.  She's a clown, but a scary clown.  We've gone from Cesar Romero to Heath Ledger.

And Kevin McCarthy is going to "talk" to her.  Yeah, that'll work.  I'm sure he'll be as forceful and effectual as he has been in confronting Trump.

How bad is this?  Very bad, with the worst part being the trend.  And the Democrats...

Look, clean your own house, or your House will go the way of Marjorie Taylor Greene.  The Democrats' trajectory is not encouraging.  Ilhan Omar.  The woman is a straight-up antisemite.  Did she call for the final solution?  No, but antisemitism is not to be tolerated, yet the party tolerates her because she combines the left-wing extremism which is fashionable right now with a metric fuckton of intersectionality.  Tell me the Democrats would accept a white, male, protestant Republican saying what she says, and even you know you'll be lying.

As a firm adherent to modern economics and fiat currency, I reject the gold standard, but this ain't the fiat currency you should be using.

If Democrats don't like Marjorie Taylor Greene, then take a look at the crazies in your own party.  This is your future, if you don't do something about them.  You need to learn to recognize the cranks and charlatans in your own midst, and cease to tolerate them.  Otherwise, it's clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right.  It's bad enough I'm dealing with a Heath Ledger Joker to the right.  What kind of clowns will I have to the left if this keeps up?  John Wayne Gacy?  Pennywise?

Yes, Marjorie Taylor Greene is terrifying, but if y'all on the left don't want to go down that road, then stop this.  Get rid of your own cranks and charlatans.  They range from fools to toxic bigots.  Deal with 'em, no matter how much intoxicating intersectionality they have.  It's no excuse for spewing hateful ignorance and bigotry.

Nor conspiracy theories, because let's not forget, it was antisemitic conspiracy theories that got Omar outed as the toxic, bigoted fool that she is.

This country really is doomed unless there is at least one party that doesn't make excuses for bigoted, toxic conspiracy theorists.