.MaddowBlog: Maria Bartiromo said Sen. Blackburn's unhinged condemnations of the Build Back Better plan were 'unbelievable' - and in a literal sense, she was right.
"[T]he American people have figured out that what they're trying to do is institutionalize socialism. They're trying to do a takeover of the country in one vote. They want government control of your kids.... They want government control of health care. They want to demoralize the military, close the churches, destroy your faith in the American system. And then here they're going to come with the socialist program to run your life from cradle to grave, daylight to dark.
As the GOP senator's rant concluded, the Fox host added,"Unbelievable." And at a certain level, that response made sense — because if we're being literal, Blackburn's over-the-top criticisms were, in fact, unbelievable. In any political discussion, criticisms must be vaguely plausible to be effective. If I wrote an analysis criticizing a Republican tax plan as a giveaway to the wealthy, you'd probably find the assessment credible. But if I wrote an analysis saying a GOP tax plan would literally dispatch Republican lawmakers to your home with blowtorches, you'd likely be a little skeptical.
And with good reason. Over-the-top condemnations not only sound implausible on their face, they also require greater evidence. In the case of the Democrats' popular Build Back Better plans, Republicans initially focused attention on the overall price tag, which didn't seem to have much of an effect on the agenda's popularity. From there, assorted GOP voices have emphasized