The NY Times’ Paul Krugman makes a gentle jab at the GOP‘s recent travails in attempting to gain relevance by playing the same old songs louder and with more enthusiasm. It should all be good comedy, except as I’ve noted before, the political process in this country really does count on two functioning parties. While the Republicans are riding the crazy train in tight circles, the Democrats are left as unchecked as the their opposition was just a few years ago. I really don’t want this country to lapse into a pendulum mode where we just swing incessantly from one extreme to the other. That’s expensive and destructive.

Yet, comedy is what ensues from the right. It’s hard not be just a little embarrassed for them. The latest is the push for “tea parties”. On the one hand, I’m of a mind to think this is a little extreme as it could be a thinly veiled call for armed revolution, which was the result of the initial Boston Tea Party. But I’m willing to assume that they are just incensed over perhaps having to pay their fair share of taxes. I’m having trouble reconciling their claims of lacking representation, but every analogy breaks down at some point. The reality of any democracy is that sometimes you don’t get your way. Suck it up.

But that’s not the comic tragedy part of the tea party. It is the fact that elected representatives, websites, Fox News, party officials, and other conservatives keep advocating for “teabagging.” Now granted, these are not the hippest people on the planet, and perhaps they don’t realize the sexual connotation of the term. But surely, somewhere on the right there is an intern who might whisper in someone’s ear that urging followers to “teabag Obama” is a pretty gay statement for a bunch of self-avowed homophobes. Oh heck, I’ll just let Rachel Maddow explain it.