Yes, they are.

It is worthwhile and timely that the Washington Post published this article by Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Although it is well-known in the grass/net-root left that their title, "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem" is an obvious truth, it is nice to have members of the establishment finally admit it as well.

I have absolutely no sympathy for the gop's position, they made this bed with the clear and utterly cynical understanding that if they sabotage government enough while Democrats are in charge, voters have no alternative but to accept their hostage-taking strategy eventually. I have hope that the 2010 midterms were a fluke, that recent events and republicans' own extremism will finally repudiate the uncompromising authoritarianism. Can their pride allow them to the center if and when the American electorate rejects their far, far right agenda? History says no.


Truth hurts.
"Mike Lofgren, a veteran Republican congressional staffer, wrote an anguished diatribe last year about why he was ending his career on the Hill after nearly three decades. 'The Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe,' he wrote on the Truthout Web site."

Hardly.
"Democrats are hardly blameless, and they have their own extreme wing and their own predilection for hardball politics. But these tendencies do not routinely veer outside the normal bounds of robust politics. If anything, under the presidencies of Clinton and Obama, the Democrats have become more of a status-quo party. They are centrist protectors of government, reluctantly willing to revamp programs and trim retirement and health benefits to maintain its central commitments in the face of fiscal pressures."

Plain reality, suprizing to see this prescription make the Washington Post.
"We understand the values of mainstream journalists, including the effort to report both sides of a story. But a balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality. If the political dynamics of Washington are unlikely to change anytime soon, at least we should change the way that reality is portrayed to the public.
Our advice to the press: Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views. Which politician is telling the truth? Who is taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends?" (emphasis mine)

Conclusion? Equivalence is a ridiculous fallacy when the right side of the equation is so committed to the destruction of democracy and the attainment of absolute power. While there is no surrender on the left because republicans will simply invent a left-wing boogieman, there is an easy realignment for the right because Democrats want more than anything to work with republicans to fix national problems. Only kooks like me want revenge for all the gop's crimes, the establishment is willing to forgive and forget. Will it ever happen? Again, history says no. Authoritarianism in this country led to our Civil War, while in Europe it led to World War. The exception was the Great Depression. The business class experienced a momentary loss of confidence because they really were dependent on the US economy for their profits and privilege. Concurrently, there was an organized liberal force around FDR that was ready to step in and win the allegiance of a critical mass of the electorate. None of these elements are present now, which is why I fear it is only a matter of time before the true believers on the right begin a new and even more bloody civil war.