Louie Gohmert: Proof that there's no minimum IQ requirement for serving in Congress

Leave it to Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) to express his opposition to restrictions on high-capacity gun magazines by invoking same-sex marriage and bestiality. During a conference call with tea party leaders earlier this week, Gohmert used the slippery-slope argument to detail his concerns about limits to gun magazines, drawing parallels to what he sees as the perils of gay nuptials…. “In fact, I had this discussion with some wonderful, caring Democrats earlier this week on the issue of, well, they said ‘surely you could agree to limit the number of rounds in a magazine, couldn’t you? How would that be problematic?’” Gohmert said on the call. “And I pointed out, well, once you make it ten, then why would you draw the line at ten? What’s wrong with nine? Or eleven? And the problem is once you draw that limit — it’s kind of like marriage when you say it’s not a man and a woman anymore, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not somebody has a love for an animal?”…. He added, “There is no clear place to draw the line once you eliminate the traditional marriage and it’s the same once you start putting limits on what guns can be used, then it’s just really easy to have laws that make them all illegal.”

There’s ignorant. There’s brain dead. And then there’s whatever the Hell Louie Gohmert is; I’m not at all certain there’s even a word for it. Then again, anyone who sees nothing inappropriate about constructing an argument that attempts to connect gun control with bestiality and same-sex marriage. Sometimes, Gohmert can blurt out something so breathtakingly stupid and inflammatory that it…well, it takes my breath away.

I respect Gohmert’s right to believe as he sees fit, though I cannot state firmly enough how much I disagree with him (despise virtually everything he stands for). It’s a free country…though if Gohmert and those who think like him had their way, that silliness would change. Having a right to an opinion doesn’t ipso facto mean you get a free pass when you say something as Looney Tunes as Gohmert. How can we have a rational, reasoned debate when Gohmert is treated like a Very Important Person with Serious Things To Say? The short version, of course, is that you can’t. There’s simply no way to reason with the unreasonable.

It’s almost as if Teapublicans got together and decided on a set of talking points no rational person could defend, much less comprehend. How one can construct an argument that compares limiting high-capacity with allowing sex-sex marriage (never mind bestiality) is something that defies rational explanation and understanding.

It’s no wonder that nothing gets done in Washington these days. How can Congress effect some sort of compromise when intellectual black holes like Gohmert are part of the mix? How do you reason- much less negotiate- with crazy? How can you have a rational debate with someone so irrational? It’s simply not possible, of course, which is why I fear for our future. When the stupid, the dogmatic, and/or the just plain crazy are the ones calling the shots, what hope can one harbor or progress being made.

Welcome to our New Idiocracy….