Talking Points Memo had an article yesterday: How The GOP Went Back To The 1950s In Just One Day. In it, Evan McMorris-Santoro discusses the three big events that the Republicans, who are amazingly tone deaf for politicians, managed to cram into a single day:

First, Darrell Issa’s hearing on contraceptives—I mean “Religious Freedom”!—that not only didn’t hear any women, but refused to allow one woman, who the Democrats wanted, to testify because Issa said she was “unqualified.” Apparently, only men are qualified to talk about women’s health. Second, the CPAC kerfuffle over the slutty way women at the conference were dressed. And third, Foster Friess, Rick Santorum’s billionaire, who joked all women need for birth control is an aspirin held between their knees. (Friess is almost charming in how funny he thinks he is. He reminds me of me.)

The article says:

A lot of people wonder about this, but to me it is quite simple. The modern Republican Party is authoritarian. They cannot dictate that the economy be this way or that. And anyway, they are ideologically opposed to doing anything that works to help the economy—even monetary policy! But they can dictate what women can and cannot do. They can dictate who can and cannot marry. The modern Republican Party is not interested in anything but helping those (the 0.01%) who keep them in power and using that power to disenfranchise the poor in every way imaginable.

This is your authoritarian brain. This is your authoritarian brain on power. Anyway questions?