WINGERS HATE EVIL FAT CATS? THE ZOMBIE LIE THAT JUST WON'T DIE

If Nate Silver is right about the New Hampshire outcome -- he's saying Romney 38.5%, Paul 18.6%, Huntsman 17.0%, Santorum 12.3%, Gingrich 11.5%, Perry 1.2% -- then it will turn out that capitalism-bashing did absolutely no harm to Mitt Romney, and that the two guys who sound most like Democrats in attacking Romney's business record will have finished fourth and fifth, in a state that's seen as having a moderate GOP voter base.

So won't that end all the talk about how even Republicans hate the rapacious rich?

Nawww. Pundits and bloggers will just say we need to wait for all that Sheldon Adelson money to work its magic for Gingrich in South Carolina; maybe they'll say that Jon Huntsman still has a chance, or that he could have a chance if his billionaire daddy would just give millions to his super PAC.

People, please: just stop. Wingnut base voters don't want Gingrich and Perry to bash Romney as a businessman. Wingnut base voters don't want Huntsman to bash Romney as someone who wouldn't serve his country under Obama. Wingnut base voters love businessmen, and they hate Obama vastly more than they love their country.

Stop trying to pretend that Republicans are rational, decent, sane, patriotic people. They're not. They're sociopaths and crackpots. They would burn this country to the ground just to rid it of their political opponents. They would openly embrace negative tax rates for billionaires and big business if Fox and Limbaugh started pushing the notion. And every time you portray them as sane, or seemingly sane, or potentially sane, you make it less likely that the rest of America will address the menace in its midst.

(X-posted at Balloon Juice.)