Brooks Slams the Republicans

Even David Brooks, right-leaning and an absolute fetishist for evenhandedness, is fed up with the current Republican party. I cannot remember a previous column in which he did not balance any criticism of Republicans with equally strident criticism of Democrats, whether they deserved it or not. But this week he lets the Republicans have it:

The struggles of the next few weeks are about what sort of party the G.O.P. is — a normal conservative party or an odd protest movement that has separated itself from normal governance, the normal rules of evidence and the ancient habits of our nation.

If the debt ceiling talks fail, independents voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don’t take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern.

And they will be right.

The House Republicans are acting in an absolutely lunatic way, as everyone with any sense can see. Thing is, I don't know if that matters. American politics are so ideological right now that most members will win re-election no matter how outrageously they behave; for most of them, voting for a compromise budget will hurt their political prospects more than letting the country default. No matter how many economists and bankers tell them their approach is ruinous, they won't care. As Brooks says, "the members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities." In their hall of mirrors, their tortured logic reigns supreme over reality.

Normally I dislike any expansion of Presidential authority, but I think the only solution at this point is for Obama to announce that the debt ceiling is unconstitutional and just ignore it. What else is he supposed to do?