This is a theory that I’ve heard variously phrased over the past few years. It is not any truer now than it was when the people failed to revolt over Hitler’s death camps, or the late night disappearance of Stalin’s enemies, or the tragic absurdity of Mao’s “Great Leap Forward.” When a voice is given to those people at the periphery of sanity, people who would otherwise keep their craziness to themselves feel that they can now unleash the crazy. Free of the fetters of the expectations of polite society, the followers of Limbaugh or Hannity can break out the racist language and use it to incite maximum response from the brainwashed audience.

I have heard people express a hope that if, after the election, women who lose the fundamental right to do what they want to do with their reproductive parts will be so outraged, they will swing the next election.

This a sad and unsupportable hypothesis.