Stephan: I find it a disturbing but strong trend that Republican voters tend to elect incompetent nutters, and grifters. Why do they do this? I think it is because they are clearly not voting on the basis of a rational assessment, rather they are voting their fears, resentments, or racism with no real concern for the results of their votes. Just consider the latest batch voters have sent to Washington. Would you invite any of these people for dinner?
From upper left, clockwise: Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, and Illinois Rep. Mary Miller. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 RNC via Getty Images, Dustin Chambers/Getty Images, Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc via Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, and Jason Kempin/Getty
Every town, midsize city, or urban neighborhood has one, or, perhaps, a family of them: the nuisance litigants, the business owners who address zoning board hearings while visibly intoxicated, the parents who ruin PTA meetings by accusing The Polar Express of encouraging demonry. They are the regulars in the police blotter section of the newspaper, the ones who have been banned from multiple softball leagues for reasons that somehow involve child support. They are America’s local ding-dongs and loose cannons. And, increasingly, they represent the Republican Party’s interests in Congress.
The demands of politics have always made “popular” figures out of the kinds of people who the average voter would find off-putting in person, and Mr. Psycho Goes […]
