Are Republicans Removing Themselves From Our World?

When he was a preteen, my son used to be fascinated by the “Darwin Awards,” bestowed unto those who, by virtue of their dying by their own blatant stupidity, went to their doom before contributing genes of lesser intelligence into the overall pool.

“Dad! Dad!” Jake would beg, “When are this year’s winners going to be announced?”  “Patience,” I’d reply.  “I think they’re due soon.”

Here’s a true story from that year’s victor:

A young man thought it was a good idea to go bungee jumping off a bridge with a cable around his ankles that is made of steel, rather than some sort of elastic.  At a few hundred feet beneath the surface you dived from, his body is now doing ~250 MPH, and the cable is fully extended.  The cable snaps off his feet, and the rest of him continues, plunging to his death.

The story of the guy who came in second place was good as well, but I have to admit it really wasn’t quite as impressive at the first.

The whole thing became an annual father-son event that lasted quite a few years.  I wish I could honestly report that we were talking about Plato and Socrates, but we weren’t.

As suggested in the NPR report above, there is a case to be made that today’s Trump supporters are collectively taking themselves out.