Facing the Truth of OIP Derangement Syndrome

On Tuesday evening, many Republicans discovered that they had been suffering from a form of OIP Derangement Syndrome—or at least discovered the consequences of it.

People close to the Romney-Ryan campaign, journalists carrying water for it, and many supporters had convinced themselves that there was something seriously wrong with American political polling. It simply couldn’t be true that more Americans supported President Obama, especially in swing states that offered the balance of victory in the Electoral College. No, something must be skewed with those surveys, many Republicans insisted.

The surveys were, in aggregate, correct. President Obama won reelection solidly, by a margin bigger than his predecessor’s. Furthermore, Democrats picked up seats in the Senate and outpolled Republicans in the House, though still not gaining control in the that chamber. The world got to see a full-blown case of OIP Derangement Syndrome as right-wing money manager and FOX commentator Karl Rove denigrated his colleagues on live television while real numbers continued to pile up against him.

Another symptom of the derangement was fixation on voter fraud, a concern that was really a thinly disguised way to suppress votes for President Obama. But people with OIP Derangement Syndrom convinced themselves this was a widespread problem, and, unable to find any actual examples, manufactured their own. A voting official in Oregon filled in blank lines on absentee ballots with Republican candidates. A New Mexico poll watcher was arrested for trying to obtain a second ballot.

Unfortunately, the election doesn’t appear to be have cured OIP Derangement Syndrome. Sufferers continued to:

• apply double standards. Disgraced pollster Dick Morris said Obama’s 332 Electoral Votes added up to a “squeaker” after he had predicted Romney winning 325 Electoral Votes in a “landslide.”
• project their hostility onto the President. Political operative turned TV celebrity Mary Matalin wrote: “A political narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice.”
• reverse themselves to avoid having to praise the President. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post contradicted months of praise for the Romney campaign so she could tell herself, “the Democrats had a much better campaign than candidate.”
• spew thinly disguised racism. Bill O’Reilly told FOX viewers that the “white establishment” was being replaced by “People [who] feel that they are entitled to things,” implying that elite whites never felt entitled.
• spew outright racism, like the rioters at the University of Mississippi, these teens on Twitter, or these Twitters users concentrated in the Deep South.

Will the fever break soon? Will we be able to discuss political differences from a basis of shared facts and logic? Or are we doomed to another four years of right-wing lies, hypocrisy, and contempt?