"Baby-Killer!" - From 60s Left To 10s Right

Joe Klein does a health care post mortem:

The profound question for Republicans is whether they continue on the path of intransigence or decide to participate in the government. Intransigence has its pleasures. In the hermetically sealed tornado of right-wing bloviation, the wildest claims have come to seem the most marketable.

This was a problem on the left for a long time. When Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas screamed "Baby killer!" on the House floor, the epithet resonated the protesters who screamed those same words at U.S. troops in the 1960s sent the American pendulum swinging back toward conservatism and crippled the Democratic Party for several generations. The Tea Party nativism, paranoia and anti-intellectualism embraced by the Republicans have rarely been a winning hand in American politics.

(Image via Joshua Tucker)