Swimming With Sharks

One of Andrew Sullivan’s readers writes about the antics of congressional Republicans during Obama’s speech last night:

Yes, the GOP of 2009 is the party of torture and fiscal recklessness. But as Joe Wilson’s outburst last night made clear, it is every bit as much the party of the College Republicans.

….Juvenile, manipulative, impossibly smarmy, hateful — or at least more than willing to use the weapon of other people’s hate — and, above all, relentlessly cynical. To these (mostly) men, politics is not the “art of the possible”, not a means for peaceably grappling with the most difficult and complex issues of the day, or for attempting to improve the lives of people you will never meet. It is nothing but a game, one where the object is not just to win but to destroy your enemies with a weird mix of angry slander and junior high insults — and to have a good chuckle while admiring your handiwork.

“Swimming With Sharks,” Frank Foer’s 2005 article about the College Republicans, is one of the best political pieces I’ve ever read.  If you didn’t see it back when it came out, do yourself a favor and read it now.