Has the right wing lost its marbles?

Ann Coulter mocking the effort to help hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria. Rush Limbaugh spending days bloviating that climate change is a left-wing political conspiracy and has nothing to do with science. Karl Rove — paging Dr. Rove — who has diagnosed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with brain damage.

How is it that anyone takes them seriously?

{mosads}It reminds me of the old lyrics from a Gerry and the Pacemakers song:

How do you do what you do to me,

I’m feelin’ blue,

Wish I knew how you do it to me

But I haven’t a clue

I really don’t have a clue why they are doing what they are doing and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to emulate the likes of Coulter, Limbaugh and Rove. Least of all, a reasonable, responsible Republican Party.

What I fail to understand is why more people don’t reject these sorts of antics. Who would want this group representing their party?

Facts don’t matter, science doesn’t matter, reason is swept aside. And others follow suit.

We have Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) this weekend denying that humans have anything to do with climate change while the U.N., NASA and the world’s scientists are all decrying the melting of the ice caps and the rising tides and attributing it to warming of the planet caused by, yes, us!

We have Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) figuratively embracing “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson at Saturday’s commencement speech at Liberty University, describing himself as “one of the loudest and most aggressive defenders of the Robertson family. … [B]ecause they have every right to speak their minds.” Really? Here is the guy who said Republicans should stop being the “stupid party” and then goes out of his way to praise Robertson, who makes racist and homophobic statements.

All this appeals to the base in the basest of ways. And maybe that is the goal: Go for the lowest common denominator, be as outlandish and as outrageous as possible, because you know you will get attention.

Well, they succeeded, but sadly for all the wrong reasons.

Contact Fenn at pfenn@fenn-group.com.