>

Sanders said the choice is no longer between Left and Right, but between "normal" and "crazy" . The author is just pointing out that while a lot of people might agree with that idea, most people would be more likely to see the GOP as the crazy party.
That's not calling anyone dumb.
I wonder how much of this is from Leaded Gasoline >

I suspect it's primarily from a steady diet of faux outrage pumped through right wing media channels, staring with the rise of Rush Limbaugh, etc. Basically, tilted opinion replaced fact, and the opinion was always tilted to generate anger and fear, since this always sells well and is easy to get "engagement" with.  Keeping someone in a constant state of fear and/or anxiety has long term detrimental effects on mental stability and reason. I wouldn't even be surprised if organic brain damage from constant cultivated rage can be identified. I'd love to see some studies done on this. 
It's an interesting phenomenon to watch, the crippling of a nation for reasons that pretty much amount to marketing and enhancing ad revenue.
Civilizations come and go, they rise and they fall. In the past, great nations have fallen due to war, famine, drought, and so on. We may have the honor of being the first to fall due to mass marketing. >


Basically, there's actual scientific evidence that conservative brains are physically hardwired to be reactionary

This is anecdotal, but my experiences with conservatives over the past ten years or so has GREATLY correlated with this. They just constantly bring up political discussions, unsolicited, unwarranted. You have to walk around eggshells in order to not set off the part of their brain that might remind them of some Fox News segment that told them to be mad about this or have a strong opinion about that. Any insinuation that you aren't 100% on board is met with some type of challenge, however brief in conversation. >

In the brains of people exposed to constant nearly non-stop conservative propaganda, the amygdala (which regulates emotional function) is physically larger. Like it actually grows to a larger size, making them more prone to act on kneejerk emotional appeals.
Liberals have a larger posterior insula, which is responsible for awareness of your physical surroundings, and awareness of what your body can do/your own limits. Because of this, liberals are less likely to make hasty or rash "on-the-spot" decisions to problems.
You can probably safely assume that if liberal brains are wired to basically make you extra cautious and aware of what's going on around you, then liberals are naturally inclined to take global or large-scale issues more seriously. Conservatives will take smaller more selfish personal reasons into consideration.
Conservative = "I don't wanna pay any tax", that's a selfish personal reason. They're unwilling to contribute to society and are deluded into believing all kinds of misinformation and lies about how taxes work. They have no concern for the world at large, as long as they're okay (and maybe their immediate family, but sometimes not even them) nothing else matters.
Liberal = "we need to take drastic action against climate change", that's a selfless desire for the benefit of all life on Earth. A healthy planet will last for hundreds of millions of years into the future, massively increasing our chance of survival by giving us plenty of time to colonize the Solar System in the future. This would prevent humans from going extinct if something goes wrong on Earth. It would also make the air cleaner, providing immediate health benefits and reducing deaths caused by pollution, etc. >

Have they actually found that the conservative media causes a larger amygdala or is it that those with a larger amygdala are more susceptible to conservative media? >

You hit the nail on the head. The correlation is there but they don't know of it's the cause of effect of Conservatism vs liberalism.
Also the previous poster didn't mention it but the critical thinking centers are also larger in Leftists. >

Well then there are 70+ million Americans who don't have a functioning brain and still vote.  So that's terrifying. >

Exactly. How that many people voted against a $15/h min. wage and to forgive all student debt. Those two things have made life in the US so much better. >

Most people in Red states do not have student debt. Either Daddy paid for school, or they were lucky to finish the 10th grade before they were 21. >

When my dad came to visit at Christmas, he talked about how he was against student loan forgiveness because it wasn’t fair to the people (like me, he pointed out) who had paid theirs off on their own. I politely informed him that no, I still owe more than $10,000 and my wife still owes slightly under $10,000, and that the forgiveness plan would be tremendously helpful for us. In typical reactionary Republican fashion, his opinion immediately changed to be in favor of the forgiveness.
It is so exhausting that for republicans, programs intended to help people are only good if they, or someone they care about, can directly benefit from it. >

In a lot of cases, they oppose programs that they and their families need and use, because they cannot stand the thought that "Others", usually people of color, are able to use them too. They are perfectly happy to harm their families, friends and even themselves as long as they know that "Others" are suffering. >


President Joe Biden did enjoy one nice benefit from his 73-minute speech last night. Thanks to the caucus of House Republicans boorishly heckling him as if they were at a football game, Biden came off as confident, optimistic, and…normal, by comparison. He was the proverbial adult in the room, promoting a message that not all Americans will agree with, but at the very least sought to address their major concerns. >

I would say that the GOP seems to be the party that represents all of America's worst problems. >


America's worst problems

GOP may not have caused all of them, but they will seemingly advocate for anything that harms the American people. >

And they did cause many, if not most, of the problems. >

Good title. >

Good article too.

Sanders’ speech captures the Republican Party’s entire political problem in a nutshell—and it has nothing to do with Donald Trump. The GOP simply has no economic or cultural message that appeals to non-Republicans.
It's easy to focus on Trump as the crux of the GOP’s political problems (and he is undoubtedly a problem). But the bigger issue is that the modern Republican Party is fundamentally disconnected from the average American voter 

I would even say Republicans have been burning everything down for so long now even some Republican voters, or swing voters whatever, are getting turned off of the message. Article talks about Democrats trying to help people with their daily lives vs Republicans yelling and screaming about made up shit. If Republicans didn’t have years and years of brainwashing locked in maybe Republican voters could sit down and figure some stuff out.
3 million more people voted for Hillary. 7 million more people voted for Biden.

“The solution is that people don’t have to come to work to try to operate trains after they’ve had heart attacks and broken legs. But right now, where we are is caught between shutting down the economy and getting enough Republicans to join us in making sure that people have access to sick leave.” >

The boogeyman shit actually works for them a lot of the time. They only watch fox or OAN or worse and they won’t see any context of Joe’s speech, at all. Independents are this country’s only hope in 2024. >

Nope. Our real hope is young voters, and that's why it's so important to encourage more of them to vote even if they aren't terribly fond of any candidate. >

Every youngling I know is, by default, an independent…basically because they’re either sick of this shit show “us against them” ruse, or because they have no idea how it all works. Roe is definitely an issue they generally agree on, at least the young people I know. >

Yeah, I see a lot of bOtH sIdEsing and political apathy among the youth, mostly because Congress is so totally grid-locked by the filibuster that they don't see Democrats passing popular legislation even though Democrats are trying. But even if they call themselves independent when it comes time to vote - if they actually vote - they overwhelmingly vote Democrat. The problem is getting out the youth vote. >

Independents barely show up on ballots where I live, so good for them voting blue. It’d be nice if it wasn’t always situation where they had to vote for people based on party, but it is what it is on earth. >

These GOP grifters have figured out a strategy that lets them live at your expense without actually producing anything at all.  All they have to do is convince you that a powerless minority is an existential risk. Then redirect you to their campaign fund site.
Free money! >

The GQP seeks out candidates who have a hard time telling reality from fantasy because they are simply tools in the Will to Power of the people who fund the GQP. >

That's why none of them are actually religious, but know exactly how to use religion as a tool to control the uneducated, religious, fearful and gullible. >

Yup and that's a wide, wide swath of the American electorate...sigh... >

sadly, a functioning brain is not required for voting >

problem is around half of voting americans seem to not have functioning brains. >

I mean, one of the first things Sanders did in Arkansas was ban the word "latinx" from government documents. Like that had to have been a huge priority for her because she did it right away, like lives depended on it or something.
Is that "normal" or "crazy"? >

I think in Kentucky it's illegal for the state to work with businesses that are trying to phase out fossil fuels. >

I think it was Wyoming where they are banning the sale of EV cars… >

If it's "normal" to refer to a person as a woman because that person is clinically biologically a woman, then it's "normal" to refer to Sarah as overweight and her father as obese because they clinically biologically are. >

I mean it is, but there's enough to criticize about the GOP without resulting to insults about their appearance, which disproportionately tend to be aimed at women. >

Totally. Every Conservative I know doesn't own a home, has no kids and is usually on multiple SSRI's just go get out of bed. How these people claim moral superiority is beyond me. >

The republican party has become absolute chaos incarnate, existing only to get in the way, lie, cheat, and troll anything they don't like. >

While I agree with the statement, we aren't going to get anywhere with republicans if we essentially call them all dumb. It only emboldens them.