What's up with all this craziness?

Crazy people seem to be coming out of the woodwork, saying crazy things, acting like children at town halls, coming to conclusions that seem contrary to all logic and evidence. Faced with rational argument and facts, they simply shout their opponents down. It's quite a spectacle, and I've never seen it on such a large scale before. What's going on?

In the past year, two very significant upheavals have occurred that, to some people, must seem to threaten the very solidity of the ground they walk on.

First, after eight years of Republican rule, with their attendant unfettering of the free market, the economy collapsed, demonstrating that the free market is not all it's cracked up to be. That must be a jolt to the true believer, if indeed he has made the connection.

Second, and this upheaval is truly a huge one: the U.S. elected a black man president (and could very well have elected a woman instead). Until last year, it seemed certain to anyone living in this country that the election of a black president was years away. Barack Obama has been president now for several months, and many people are still in denial about it. Their world has been turned upside down. The certainty that white men were firmly in charge has been shattered. In the United States, where our representatives are elected and the transfer of power is peaceful and smooth, it's easy to overlook a social revolution when it happens. This spectacle of people's irrational behavior is a gauge that shows that part of the population is shaken to the core.