The political news today for Jeb Bush is not good; the latest poll from Florida shows him with support in the single digits. In Florida. Ouch.

But Ben Carson and Donald Trump, arguably the two most extreme Republicans in the race, have reason to party: both of them are now over 20% in the latest CNN poll, as the rest of the field falters.

By now you probably know my take on this; demagogues like Trump and Carson have floated to the top because the voting base of the GOP has been so degraded and radicalized by years of crazy talk. There’s now an almost complete lack of ideological diversity in the GOP. The disturbing far right mindset epitomized by groups like the John Birch Society and the Tea Party and popularized by right wing blogs and media is in total control of the Republican Party, and establishment Republicans like Jeb Bush can only watch impotently in horror.