HERE'S YOUR REGULAR REMINDER THAT REPUBLICAN VOTERS ARE INSANE EXTREMISTS

Thank you, Yas and Tom, for some great posts while I was away. I hope I can live up to your standards.

I'm noticing today that even as we're having our usual argument about whether Democrats are moving too far to the left (hi, Ruy Teixeira!), GOP base voters are wallowing in extremism, and are proud of it. Here are a few stories about a Daily Mail survey of Iowa Republican voters.

First, this one:

A majority of Republican voters in Iowa believe the pursuit of former President Donald Trump by the FBI and the Department of Justice smacks of Nazi rule in 1930s Germany, according to a new poll for DailyMail.com.

Some 57 percent of respondents said they agreed with the statement: 'The lawlessness of the persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.'

This is an exact quote from an August 1 Trump statement, one that was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations. Trump is a free man and a possible future president, which is something you can't say about those who displeased the Nazi government, but I guess historical illiteracy is rife among Iowa GOP voters.

As is science illiteracy:

Republican voters in Iowa would like to see vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. put in charge of regulating American medicines or leading the nation's public health efforts, according to an exclusive new poll....

They backed the idea of putting him in charge of the Centers for Disease Control or the Food and Drug Administration by a margin of almost three to one.

Some 48 percent endorsed the proposal, which was floated last month by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in his run for president. Only 17 percent said they were opposed....

Some 40 percent of respondents said he could make a good running mate for the eventual Republican nominee, including half of people who said they were backing former President Donald Trump.

... 29 percent said they were opposed to putting him on Republican 2024 ticket.

And finally:

A new poll for DailyMail.com found that almost half of Republicans in Iowa ... say [Donald Trump] should continue in the race even if he is imprisoned for federal crimes.

Some 48 percent said he should press on compared with 39 percent who said he should drop out....

Maybe it's a sign of sanity that almost 40% of poll respondents think an imprisoned felon ought to drop out of the race. But it's still not a majority of the party base in the state, or even a plurality.

When No Labels introduces the Joe Manchin/Larry Hogan ticket sometime next year, we'll be told that it's vitally important to give voters an alternative to the extremes of both major parties. But any extremism that might exist in the Democratic Party can't compare to this.