Narcissism.  Xenophobia.  Superstition.  Bigotry.  Sadism.  Cultism.  Denial.  Sexual predation.  Arrested development.  Delusion.  Bullying.  Dissociation.  Paranoia.  Repression.  Obsession.  Avarice.  Egotism.  Insecurity.  Pathological lying.  God complex.  Megalomania.  Misogyny.  Sociopathy. 

Do any of these words describe Republicans you know, either personally or as elected or appointed officials?  Perhaps more than one term applies in any number of cases.  I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist or sociologist.  But I do have common sense and a long memory.  I saw the seeds of many of these behaviors among Republican voters, commentators, candidates and office holders about the time Ronald Reagan came to power.  Now, these behaviors dominate Republican discourse.  They are mainstream.

Reasonable voices like Colin Powell and Charlie Crist are ostracized and subjected to ad hominem attacks from the "true" GOP, like Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney.  Others, like Richard Lugar and Lawrence Wilkerson, openly disagree with their more radicalized fellows to such an extent that Reagan's 11th Commandment is officially dead.  Still others that were arguably reasonable, like John McCain, have become increasingly shrill and strident.  Arlen "RINO" Specter changed sides.  The venerable Tom Davis just gave up.

Every month, lately every week, features the GOP in a new public relations disaster.  Jindal.  Cheney.  Specter.  Ensign.  Sanford.  Palin.  Each new incident brings out the gymnast in the GOP apologists and spin-doctors.  The latest and strangest occurrence was Sarah Palin's pouty and abrupt resignation as Alaska's governor.  Her ill-considered public ramblings equated continuing with quitting, quitting with winning, and leading with being driven from office - up-is-down, wrong-is-right Bizarro politics at its finest.  

A child would typically reject these absurd notions, but a swath of educated, credentialed and popular GOP role players have the temerity to call this move "shrewd."  Partially, this is institutional damage control, but a survey of various conservative blogs indicates an amazing degree of support and acceptance among some members of the rank and file who still love their Sarah.  Republican strategist Ed Rollins had the honesty to call it political suicide, but when Ed Rollins is the voice of sweet reason, something is seriously wrong in the clubhouse.

I have therefore been forced by events to come to a reluctant conclusion.  I say "reluctant" because it's so improbable, but, as A. Conan Doyle wrote for Sherlock Holmes, "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"  My conclusion is that the socio-pathologies listed above are not characteristics of Republicans, they are Republicans' characteristics.  To avoid being accused of sweeping generalizations, let me reel it in a bit and say that these are the characteristics of too many Republicans for the party's own good.

Any organization is an expression of the humans that make it up.  Leaders cannot lead and followers cannot gather in the absence of at least the perception of shared vision and values.  The men and women who lead the Republican party reflect various tendencies of their constituencies; this is axiomatic in the fact that they are the leaders.  And the remaining American men and women who self-identify as Republicans share characteristics of the leaders they have chosen; it's axiomatic in the fact that they are followers.

In the broadly construed organization of Republicanism, meaning elected officials, party members, operatives, commentators, contributors, and voters, some of these social pathologies have masqueraded as policy.  There is a strong strain of covert and at times overt bigotry in Republican thought on social programs.  On immigration reform, while Democrats have embraced the logical advantages of soliving a problem while expanding their base, xenophobia is a core aspect of the GOP's emotional and self-defeating reaction to the issue.  Unbridled avarice drives much of the GOP opposition to progressive taxation.  Other policies abound with emotionally unstable dynamics: paranoia is interchangeable with national security, denial is the handmaiden for global warming, and pathological lying passes for communication.

Other examples of emotional defects are found among some of the most visible Republicans in the country.  Sen. James Inhofe, who was "outraged at the outrage" over institutionalized torture of prisoners, has a strong streak of sadism.  Mark Foley was an archetype sexual predator; his fancy for young men could easily have been the substitute for a darker preference.  In its most extreme expression, Evangelical Christianity is not what Jesus Christ taught, but tantamount to superstition; see Alan Keyes, who in his debate with State Senator Obama cited religious faith as a cure for our problems. 

Cultism is in full bloom for Mike Huckabee and similar believers who despite unalterable proof in sciences from paleontology to physics peg the Earth's age at about 7,000 years (all probably displayed in an emotionally comforting time line at the Creationist Museum).  On the other hand, they dismiss evolution as a "theory" incapable of scientific proof.  Evidently, Huckabee and his fellows see no flaw in this contradiction, or in such a selective approach to applying their standards of proof to reinforce personal beliefs rejected by an overwhelming majority, including people of many faiths.  

Repression: Larry Craig, a tortured soul who deserves pity.  God complex: Rudy Giulianai.  Egotism: Tom Delay.  Narcissim: Gov. Mark Sanford.  Delusion: Sen. Jim DeMint.  Arrested development: Sarah Palin.  Sexual obsession: Sen. David Vitter.  Sociopath: George W. Bush.  Megalomania: Too numerous to list.  Paranoia, thy name is Cheney.  Sen. Jim Bunning and Rep. Michelle Bachman are, well, just nuts.  Yet every one of these miscreants boasts (or boasted) strong support in segments of the American electorate.  Clearly their voters saw something they liked, and some still do. 

Similarly, Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and their like are reprehensible humans, serial liars and media bullies who are loved by misguided millions.  It all becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop until one of the players cracks under the pressure (i.e., Craig, Palin) or is found out (i.e., Ensign, Sanford, Vitter).  Then the sparks fly and veteran observers, Republicans and Democrats alike, just shake their heads in bemusement. Democrats have their own scoundrels, but they are far fewer in number, do not dominate policy, and of late are quickly ejected, not defended (Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, William Jefferson).  These are signs of an emotionally healthy organization.

I still am incredulous at this realization, but it potentially explains so very much.  The GOP isn't in deep trouble because of Iraq or demographics or scandals or recession.  These are contributing factors but they are all transitory.  The GOP is in trouble because a significant portion of the party's base, the party's leaders, and the party's most vocal spokespeople are slaves to identifiable social and mental disabilities.  They are not driven by ideology, but by pathology.  It's been festering for years, culminating in an ongoing, spectacular collapse due to their inability to maintain the façade, accept the failure of their beliefs and cope with a changing world.   

This is why so many Republicans are retreating to their comfort zone and preaching a "return" to core, conservative values even while the country as a whole is demanding the opposite and GOP leaders betray those values with stunning visibility.  This call has nothing to do with embracing true conservative political thinking as a strategy- it's a call to return to the cult of dysfunctionality under the delusion that repeating with greater intensity the same behaviors that produced monumental failure will instead produce success.  A belief that this approach will lead to national political prominence and the establishment of government doctrine is delusional in the highest degree.  Bush may not have been a "true" conservative but he was a "true" Republican while Colin Powell is not, and therein lies the GOP's problem. 

Scandals, outrageous remarks and ill-considered actions are not causes of the Republican downfall, but symptoms of deeper flaws.  The symptoms will recur as long as the issues remain.  This won't improve with new strategies - the GOP needs better, healthier people from top to bottom  When that happens, the extremists will be pushed to the fringe, where they used to be.  Until that happens, the Republican party will continue to be, at best, regionalized, marginalized, and comically disorganized, and, at worst, hateful and violent - their blogs seethe with venom and their farthest reaches include and condone political murderers and terrorists. 

The political contest today is no longer just about policies, ideas and personalities.  It's also about one side that proceeds from mental disorder versus one that doesn't.  Rational individuals would drive the most visible and vocal Republicans out of their party, into the sea and start all over.  Accepting these behaviors is dissociation from reality on a mass scale.