Some years back(in 2012 I think) I wrote a blog post entitled "Texas Republican Party goes "batshit crazy"".

Now in 2016 it seems that what was once a localized phenomenon has metastasized into virtually a national condition- not just the Lone Star State GOP but the Republican Party PER SE seems to have gone, to put it crudely "batshit crazy".

If you don;t believe me then take a gander at the GOP's 2016 platform( its convention is due to open in Cleveland this coming Monday)- let's see "Conversion Therapy" for LGBTs(universally discredited by most serious psychologists and psychotherapists), repeal of "Obamacare"(never mind the fact that it has been upheld by the US Supreme Court and that there is no credible alternative on the table), "religious freedom" to discriminate against LGBTs, yet more whopping tax cuts for the 1%, still more freedom to "keep and bear arms"

(as if the Redcoats were spoiling for a rematch in 2016) and other hunks of red meat to propitiate the "base"( the kind of people the late Nancy Reagan once privately ridiculed as "the extra chromosome conservatives" who"want to jump off the cliff with the flag flying!").

It makes no sense- as Richard Nixon (no bleeding heart liberal) observed, in a presidential election year, you tack towards the Right during the primaries, but after the nomination and until election day you move steadily towards the centre- because that's ultimately where the most votes are to be found-NOT with the "true believers" of either Right or Left.

Politicians in Western democracies who ignore this truism do so at their electoral peril- as Barry Goldwater , George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis found out to their sorrow in the US Presidential elections of 1964, 1972, , 1984 and 1988 and as Labour leader Neil Kinnock did in the British general election of 1983.

Given that unlike 1968 and 1972 where the Democratic Party was badly split(over Vietnam and other issues), it is the GOP who are disunited whereas the Democrats are virtually united!

Anybody think as I do?

Terry