An Attack on the Legitimacy of the State, Democracy, and the Law

(updated below)

Ok, so many of us either joke or cry about the Tea Party and the Great Republican Death Spiral. I've often personally speculated that eventually, this will shift us to two new parties - the Libertarians/Blue Dogs and the Progressives. But a couple of things have made me wonder whether the danger is greater than we imagined.

David Frum on the role radicalism played in the Republican defeat

Conservative writer and former Dubya speechwriter David Frum just sent a wakeup call called "Waterloo" to his conservative compatriots blasting the "conservative entertainment industry" and lamenting that following "the most radical voices in the party and the movement ... led us to abject and irreversible defeat," claiming that Republican leaders were unable to negotiate because of the radicalization of their base.

How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

This is a must-read, doubly so for thinking conservatives.  We could all use some perspective.