Sadly they know exactly what they are doing. Today's really dumb person (AKA the Republican base)does not tolerate being talked down to (something that many of our elite Democratic leaders tend to do to us)so they take off their jackets, roll up their sleeves, grab a chew and go muck the barn with their redneck pals. The problem is the chew rots your teeth and you never get the smell off ya...

Gary,

Terrific! Truly, the lunatics are now running the asylum! Giving the rest of us shock treatments!

Rec'd.

Who needs brain waves when you got cash and prayers?

Strato, a rallying cry, unfinished, to be sung on the Republican bus to nutsville:

We are the Hummerheads,
mighty mighty Hummerheads,
everywhere we go, people want to know,
who we are, so we tell them,
we are the HUMMERHEADS
mighty mighty KNUCKLEHEADS,
some are in the slammer,
dumb as a bag of HAMMERS!!.
ain't gettin smarter
so we get louder
WE ARE THE NUMBSKULLS
MIGHTY MIGHTY DUMBSKULLS,...

Well put.

On a more serious note, the Republicans spent a LONG time as a minority party. One of the things they learned was how to stick together and fight in the street.

The Democrats still assume they have the majority with them and don't really have to get down in the gutter to fight. They're embarrassed when they tell a lie in the service of their cause, so they don't tell them very effectively.

Also, as Chait pointed out some time ago, the Dems are too concerned with the notion of "what works." If they discovered that government intervention in, say, health care didn't work, they'd abandon it. But the Republicans are filled mostly with principles which are operative regardless of whether they work or not. In fact, flying in the face of the facts is what people with principles do. If lots of resistance comes their way, it's a sign they're on the right track.

They don't mind being hated. It's a badge of honor. Dems hate being hated, which makes them seem unprincipled and wishy washy.