Nice summation of the different behavior patterns of the two groups. For the longest time here we've tried to maintain the polite fiction of symmetry, virtuously insisting that every time a politician in one camp does something wrong, there must be, somewhere, a politician of the opposite polarity doing exactly the same thing.

It's logically impossible, of course, and to some degree intellectually dishonest. Republicans are not just Democrats of the opposite polarity, they're two peoples with vastly different mindsets and behavior patterns.

A group like the Democrats with all the gift for organization of a herd of cats simply can't do the kind of harm that requires organization and discipline. So much for that "collectivist meme", eh? In contrast, a group that values obedience, conformity, consistency, and blind loyalty, naturally has the scope to do a great deal more damage to the country. You get a Republican in the White House and Republicans controlling Congress, and a tacit conspiracy is born. The Right's all about groupthink...so much for the "rugged individualist meme", eh?

So much in politics is the opposite of what it seems. The Right screeches about collectivism on the Left, but who really values independence and freedom of thought? The group that "embraces diversity" and considers agreeing to disagree to be a virtue? Or the group of rigid doctrinaires that burns heretics at the rhetorical stake?

We're both being imprecise with terminology, of course. The GOP is currently the captive of radical Rightists, and so at the moment "Republican" is pretty much synonymous with "Rightist". But that hasn't always been the case, and the moderate Republicans who've been shoved (and kicked and bludgeoned) to the sidelines may well stage a coup and take back their party. I can deal with moderate Republicans, it's the whackjob Rightists I have no patience for any more.

Once upon a time, "the Nixon syndrome" was the pathology of a single individual. Now it's the pathology of an entire political party.