I was planning on writing an article on all the silliness that is still coming out of the mouths of republicans throughout the past year. The problem that I began to have was that the research that I was doing was taking up pages and pages of notes and were going to ramble on and on forever within this article. I like to be wordy, but I have to cut back somewhere. What I began to notice was that it was becoming fairly easy to categorize many of the statements that were being made by republicans and their surrogates on the airwaves. As I look at this political party that seems absolutely determined to self-destruct, I begin to understand that they are making statements that generally fall into what I call the three I's; inanity, insanity, and idiocy. Every once in a while, one of their people do something to attempt to break the pattern and add a fourth I, intelligence, but this occurs with less and less frequency. It becomes fairly obvious, however, when one looks at this pattern, why winning national elections will become increasingly difficult for the republican party.

Let me begin with statements of inanity. I am defining inanity for the purpose of this discussion as statements  or actions, that though were made or done with directional intent, were met with views of disbelief or amazement from the general onlooker. These may not be fatal errors and may be corrected at a future time, but does wound the party in the eyes of the population at large. Some examples of republican inanities include:

1. Ann Coulter when discussing an unfortunate newspaper article listing the names and addresses of gun owners in a small town responded by indicating "Why don't we publish a list of women who get abortions?" The remark may have not only been inane but insensitive to every woman. However, the republican party wants Americans to understand that there is no animus toward women in their party.
2. The United States Congress not reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. Even understanding that the republicans may have had some problems with provisions of the law that extended the coverage of the act to immigrants, native Americans, and transgendered individuals, this is the first time that this act failed to be reauthorized. Again, in a party that is attempting to redefine it's relationship with women, absolute inanity of insuring the passage of this act is a political faux pas of the highest magnitude.
3. The United States Senate republicans failing to ratify {requiring a 2/3 vote} the United Nations International Disabilities Treaty. What makes this such a blatant inanity is that this treaty is a virtual rewording of the American's With Disabilities Act and was worded in such a way as to demonstrate the world's admiration for the way we treat our citizens with challenges. The ADA, was passed, by the way, during a republican president's administration.
4. Mitch McConnell famously stating that his goal after the midterm elections of 2010 was to make Obama a one-term President. Again, even understanding the politics of the statement, it would seem that the leader of the minority party of the highest deliberative body in the country would have better, less inane and immature statements to make to the press.
5. And finally, Newt Gingrich when asked about Citizen's United responded, " The problem isn't too much money in political campaigns, but not enough." Just a final bit of inanity that segues nicely into a discussion about republican insanity.

Political insanity is different from any other type of insanity in this world. The politically insane don't get committed or even go into treatment, they just reinvent themselves. That reinvention allows the politician to make statements or commit actions that the "normal" person hears or looks at and shakes his or her head saying, "no, they didn't say [do] that." But we know they did. These are frequently the politically suicidal statements and votes. The republicans have been particularly adept at the insane this year.

1. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham saying that "President Obama is allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to take over the American government." Insanity, especially the viral conspiracy type is always made worse when the source of that insanity has a large base to preach or talk to. In Graham's case, as in some of the others in this category, they appear regularly before large audiences either in person or in the media.
2. Alex Jones who has a large internet following just recently announced that President Obama caused Hurricane Sandy by engineering the storm using a Pentagon Weather Modification Project.
3. An NRA spokesperson, in the wake of the Newtown massacre has just made headlines by famously announcing that more people are murdered by hammers and clubs than by guns. The only problem was that the person was either delusional or didn't read the data. It was not all guns but just a certain type of rifle.
4. Amazingly 67 republican congressmen, including many whose districts received aide for Hurricane Katrina, voted against the Hurricane Sandy relief bill. This had to be either the most blatant display of political hypocrisy or pure political insanity ever on the floor of congress.
5. An finally, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell threatening to once again shut down the government if they do not get their way on the debt ceiling negotiations. Even in the real world, we often jokingly describe insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If these men are so delusional that they think that the American people are going to praise them for driving the American economy into a double dip recession than  they are even more insane than I think.

And then we get to the last area of the republican trifecta, that of idiocy. Now don't get me wrong, there is plenty of idiocy to go around in both parties, but the republicans have truly made an art form of it this past year. Idiocy is being defined here as statements that are made that a toddler knows are absurd. The level of idiocy of these statements won't even be commented upon, but here they are.

1. Steve Doocey and Peter Napolitano of Fox News: Obama faked the death of Osama Bin Laden and then engineered a fake Project Neptune.
2. Jerome Corsi of swift boat fame: Obama is married to a Pakistani man.
3. John Bolton the former Ambassador to the U.N. and Sean Hannity of Fox News: Hillary Clinton has a very bad case of Benghazi fever.
4. Rush Limbaugh: Slavery did have merit. For one thing, it was safe to walk after dark.
5. Charles Krauthammer: Sandy relief would have been a rape of the United States treasury.
6. Mike Huckabee: Tax funded abortion pills caused the Newtown tragedy.

Politics is a profession where you have to say and do things that allow you to build coalitions. When the historical coalitions that you have won on have begun to erode, most political parties have rebuilt utilizing smart politics. The republican party of 2013 is trying a new tactic. Rather than build a new platform and reaching out to a new America, they have appeared to adopt the 3 I's.  If I was a really poor speller, I would warn that they were heading for a fourth I, Ixtinction.......but they know what I mean.