I noted last week the comments of a Guardian correspondent, Michael Cohen, that the most interesting aspect of recent politics was the “rapid descent of the Republican Party into madness.” Today Steve Benen remarks that “there’s a strain of madness in today’s GOP, and it remains terribly unsettling.” Benen’s comment was occasioned by  Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of Brian Nieves’ “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” the mother of all nullification bills. Benen derided the bill itself as well as Nieves’ – described as “a deeply confused Republican state senator” – response to its veto  

Benen aptly summarizes the gist of the bill:

Many of us have grown accustomed to a certain degree of nuttiness in Republican policymaking in the 21st century, but even by today’s GOP standards, this was just insane: “The bill seeks to nullify any and all past and future federal laws that might infringe upon Missouri’s interpretation of the Second Amendment, which is very different from the Supreme Court’s and which can be summarized thusly: Anything goes.”

And yet, it passed the GOP-led state legislature anyway. …

See where we’re all going when it comes to to the question of GOP lunacy? Neives’ entirely bonkers response to the veto was perfectly in character, replete with the emotive capitalization, and lavish use of exclamation marks that seems to characterize all his writing efforts:

I just couldn’t resist sharing this! Here we see our esteemed governor B___slapping BOTH the 2nd AND 10th Amendments at the same time! He then has the Gall, the Nerve, to stand in front of the people of Missouri and “say” he supports the 2nd Amendment?!?! … *

These words not only reveal the superficiality and ignorance of Nieves, but the reflect the fevered mental processes of a person who has moved so far beyond rationality that he should excite fear. Instead, fellow Missourians in the heavily Republican 26th district continue to elect him to state office. When it comes to the idea of collective madness, need one say more?

* The RiverFront Times offers a screenshot of the Nieves Facebook rant from which the quote above was taken; the RFT notes that cooler heads seems to have prevailed and the post has subsequently been removed (or RFT access was blocked). If your’re in the mood for a laugh, there’s more on the Facebook comments here.