The growing gravitation of authoritarians to the Republican Party over the past generation is an important determinant in understanding the closed feed-back loop of the current right-wing information environment.

The right's hostility to "socialism" is quite striking given its simultaneous insistence that our first duty as Americans is to pay fealty to God's law, which explicitly calls for re-distributing wealth.

Like many who espouse his philosophy, Paul believes fervently that those at the bottom should fend for themselves in a free society while those at the top are entitled to free-ride.

In his op-ed column in the Times, Tom Friedman says he's identified the ugliest political sight one can see. You want ugly?