Extreme Extremism

Check this Washington Post article on how rightwing leaders are foaming at the mouth against the judiciary, threatening mass impeachments and coming winkingly near to advocating murder. Their current #1 target is Justice Kennedy of the US Supreme Court, a Reagan appointee. His greatest crime: voting to end the death penalty for minors.

Then read this Frank Rich column on the death-watch culture that has been growing up around us, and that fuels and is fueled by rightwing extremism.

There are well-groomed, smiling people in suits or dresses who seriously think that the Reagan Supreme Court is dominated by a cabal of leftist radicals inspired by "Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law". (Do they mean English common law?) Yet these people themselves quote Stalin as an inspiration: "[Stalin] had a slogan, and it worked very well for him, whenever he ran into difficulty: 'no man, no problem,' " [rightwing lawyer-scholar Edwin] Vieira said.

We're also an age of scandal, and we can only hope that scandal tarnishes some of these people effectively.