Keeping a Clear Head in These Troubled Times

If anyone knows what happened to the old Republican Party, dial 911 and they'll send a rescue squad to bring them home. They haven't been heard from for a long time.

At Talking Points Memo, TPM Reader DK has these thoughts on today's politics (one caveat: instead of saying conservatives, I wish DK would say right wing conservatives):

The vigor with which the GOP has attacked journalism in recent months is a reliable indicator of what conservatives see as the greatest threat to their power (and if journalism is the greatest threat, that's a sure sign that other democratic institutions have withered). The Administration has attacked then investigated journalists for disclosing illegal government activities, some authorized by the President. It has suggested that journalists play into the hands of terrorists by reporting on the strife in Iraq. And 24 hours a day, conservatives' Fox News makes a mockery of journalism.

You can disagree about what reality should be. That is the essence of democracy. But when the instruments of state power, including the President's bully pulpit, are used to attack the effort--within government, but especially without--to identify, describe, and analyze what reality is, then we have run right up against the limits of what democracy can withstand. It is the abandonment of the Enlightenment in favor of a dark and uncertain future.

In an effort to lead the nation, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and now, apparently, Condi Rice are behaving so secretly that they're working without flashlights. God help us all.