What makes Oregon unique?

Oregon has reliably rejected a Republican governor and senators for some time now, including during the last round of elections. Is it because the state is reliably liberal?

Not really. Oregon's almost equally split between urban liberals and rural conservatives. But it seems that people here can see the GOP for what it is—vile.

Take Art Robinson, the Oregon Republican Party chairman. He who tried for a seat in Congress last month and failed. Why? The Portland Tribune explains:

• Robinson circulated a petition that claimed reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would harm the environment.
• He suggested we could get rid of nuclear waste by sprinkling it over the ocean.
• Robinson stated that the residents of one of Oregon's most impoverished counties be tested with urine samples.
• And he called public schools the most devastating form of child abuse in the U.S.

In short, the leader of the state's GOP party is bonkers. And folks here just sort of picked up on it.

Meet Art Robinson, the Batshit Insane Head of Oregon’s GOP

Art Robinson is the new chair of the Oregon Republican Party. What are his qualifications? Well, he is a climate change denier. And of course, he’s a loose cannon. Hey, I’m just quoting him: “I'm an American. We’re all loose cannons.”

How loose is Art’s cannon? Here he is on nuclear waste:

“All we need do with nuclear waste is dilute it to a low radiation level and sprinkle it over the ocean — or even over America after hormesis is better understood and verified with respect to more diseases.”

On public schools:

“Public education (tax-financed socialism) has become the most widespread and devastating form of child abuse and racism in the United States. Can it be corrected by improving the public schools? No—only by abolishing them.”

When three of his kids went to Oregon State University and failed to get their doctoral work in nuclear engineering (!) approved, it was because “liberal socialist” school “dances to the tune of the Democratic machine.”

That doesn’t even make sense.

You must be wondering the same thing as me: How could Oregon’s Republicans be this desperate? Answer: Hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer. (Check his political contributions here.) And Mercer LOVES Robinson; witness his near million-dollar contribution to the Robinson’s “science foundation” two years ago. (Mercer is currently being sued by his employees, BTW.)

What have we learned? Republicans are batshit crazy—and they have some serious coin backing up their madness.