Republicans vs. the Republic

Of all the nonsense the American right wing has been spouting these days, the attacks by Gingrich, et al., on the judiciary seem to me to be the most dangerous. Besides the obvious pandering to the far right, the rhetoric appears designed to undermine the legitimacy of the court system. What power do the courts have, other than the respect we show them? They are largely dependent on the executive branch to enforce their rulings. Sure, I think the Supreme Court has made some boneheaded decisions. But to suggest that the executive branch should just ignore the decisions they disagree with, or worse, try to remove judges who don't rule the way they want, is an attempt to remove one of the pillars of the American Constitution.

And it's not like it couldn't really happen: cf. Andrew Jackson vs. the Cherokee Nation.

As former Republican operatives have described, part of the Republican agenda is to generally hinder the federal government from doing anything, thus making it seem inefficient and useless. This makes it easier for the Republicans to manipulate the public, and for their corporate sponsors to have their way (i.e.: the government controlling corporations is bad, but corporations controlling the government is good). So perhaps this is just a new tactic in their overall strategy. But I find it very scary.

Has the Republican race for the presidential nomination just become a contest to see who can out-crazy the rest?