Validating the crazy

The news is full these days of conservatives -- from Laura Bush to Newt Gingrich -- giving a nod of approval to President Barack Obama's speech to school children.

They're responding to the "controversy" fomented by radical conservatives who claim that Mr. Obama is trying to indoctrinate children.

The whole business is beyond ludicrous: it's a further sign that many conservatives have lost touch with political sanity.

Worse yet, media outlets validate this nutso behavior by framing the "debate" as a he-said, she-said sort of dialogue.

"Is it okay for the President of the United States to talk to schoolchildren?"

"Is there a danger that our top elected official is a Maoist figure trying to brainwash kids?"

Rather than make it clear that such questions are purely nuts, beyond the pale of civil discourse in our democracy, journalists ask pundits to wax philosophical, treating the questions as legitimate.

And then, bizarrely, they turn to conservatives to essentially give their blessing to the President's speech.

The Obama administration has helped to sustain the entire business by calling it (repeatedly) "silly" -- far too gentle a word.

This isn't silly. It's scary crazy. It's a sign of political derangement.

"Movement" conservatives have made it clear that they view Mr. Obama and Democrats not as the "loyal" opposition, but as enemies of our democracy.

They have worked since last November's decisive election to deligitimize Mr. Obama's administration, claiming that the election was rigged by groups like ACORN; arguing that Barack Obama is a foreigner; suggesting that supporters of Democratic policies aren't "real" Americans.

The argument that our President can't talk to school-children is of a piece with that broader message.

The irony, of course, is that people who feel this way make up a passingly small percentage of our citizenry.

Even the vast majority of Republicans understand that the proper way to respond to policies and politicians they disagree with is through respectful debate and hard-fought elections.

Unfortunately, the media -- and a small cadre of political agitators -- have conspired to spin the national discussion into something very different, and something far more ugly.

Mr. Obama desperately needs to learn this lesson.

In the current climate, partnering with smart, engaged Republicans -- such as Rep. John McHugh -- makes a lot of sense.

But trying to mollify the right's radical fringe (by issuing an advanced copy of his speech to students, for example) only empowers and emboldens them.