Steve Kornacki on Iowa and What the Republicans Have Made of Themselves: Attacks on Gays, Muslims, Obama, and Godless Liberalism

And speaking of that political party the U.S. Catholic bishops have anointed in recent years as the Catholic party of choice (I'm linking here to my previous posting): as Steve Kornacki points out at Salon today, the Republican party has created a nifty trap for itself, by permitting itself to be taken captive by religious right extremists (and tea partiers masquerading as libertarians while keeping the religious right extremism alive).  In Kornacki's view, we see on full display right now in Iowa an exhibit of the mean-spirited "religious" lunacy that has become the GOP:

This is what it has come to for the Republican Party: The lead-off contest for its next presidential nomination -- an event that has played a vital role in winnowing GOP fields since 1980 -- will be utterly dominated by voters with ravenous appetites for  attacks on gays, Muslims, President Obama's "otherness" and godless liberalism in general.

To repeat: this is what the U.S. Catholic bishops have been working overtime in recent years to align American Catholicism with.  Until, unless, lay Catholics begin to exercise ownership of their church, I can't see much of a bright future for American Catholicism, with these folks in the drivers' seat.