although I do sympathize with your allusions to Narcissism and Paranoia--my own psychological model for fascism. "I'm better than everyone else and if it only wasn't for those [insert the minority or scapegoat of your choice here] I would be successful and happy."

But if we choose to set aside my original speculation about the man being a black propagandist conducting an elaborate masquerade, there is something else we can propose in its place.

Consider this; I chose to stay out of the debate preceding the election early in October. I reasoned the vote was going to be very close, perhaps even deadlocked, and I felt it would be pointless getting involved in a feces-flinging contest when I had no idea how the debate would be resolved. After all, sooner or later there would be a winner or a loser, and I figured I had a 50-50 chance of winding up humiliated and insulted by some smug debating opponent who guessed right. A wise man avoids making bets on a game over which he exerts no influence.

But as George Smiley reminds us, "lack of moderation will be [the fanatic's] downfall." The fanatics here on the Zone were so convinced of the clarity of their vision they simply could not imagine the election would be close, that for one reason or another, they might "lose" the debate publicly. They could not understand that what might happen in the future is not necessarily a result of how they think about it. Sometimes it is dictated by external forces (including blind chance) which are not obvious in the past.

I noticed the same fanaticism among the analysts and commentators on FOX, where I watched the returns last night. They found Romney's defeat inconceivable. For them, there had to be a "reason" (usually a sinister and conspiratorial one) for their man's defeat. The very idea that it was a close race and they might wind on the losing side simply was not considered as a possibility. This made them ignore the polls and even the opinions of some of their own pundits. Their view of reality was immune to reason or chance, it was dictated by belief. They simply couldn't lose, they were right!

If SDAI is not a rogue lefty propagandist, he's just your basic righty fanatic. And as Smiley points out; "The fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt."

When it is publicly exposed, his entire world-view collapses.