Conservative crazies will be the death of this country. They are so far beyond the conservatives of the past, let alone the Republican Party itself, that they qualify more as a cult than a political movement. Their ideology and worldview are exotic products of the particular socio-economic conditions that prevail in the American heartland. They are so far out of touch with the rest of the world that foreigners have difficulty believing that such a thing could exist, let alone understanding its dynamics. Is this American exceptionalism? A population of exceptionally strange people pursuing a bizarre ideology that could exist nowhere else in the world?