I am going to attempt the impossible here. I am going to attempt to rationally explain insanity. Let's be clear about something, I do not mean for this to be an insult. I'm not simply calling names. That being said, the leaders of the Democratic Party are quite literally insane.

What is "sanity"? It is "soundness of thought. The ability to be reasonable."

Is Dick Durbin -- the second most powerful man in the Democratic Party's -- comparing the absence of air conditioning in the interrogation room at a prison camp for suspected terrorists to the Nazi holocaust in which millions of innocent people were used for medical experiments, worked to death and marched into ovens and gas chambers "reasonable"?

Is Ward Churchill -- the chairman of the entire "ethnic studies" program at a major university offering a sane position when he says that the people who sold insurance and mutual funds from offices in the World Trade Center deserved to be burned alive because they are all "little Eichmans"?

Is Howard "Yee-ha" Dean -- the man the Democratic Party leaders chose over all others because they felt he best represents the voice and the policies of the party -- exhibiting "soundness of thought" when he says that he "hates" Republicans and that Senator Tom DeLay should be sent to prison without benefit of evidence or a trial but that he's witholding judgment of Osama Bin Ladin?

Let's be clear. These are not the meaningless rantings of some twelve year old children using their daddy's computer to let off adolescent angst. These are the most powerful people in the Democratic Party repeating time and again the most insane and hateful of slanders and standing by them afterwards as if it's the challenge to their insanity that is off-base.

This is insanity.

So where does this insanity come from? Does it have a name?

According to the former feminist leader Tammy Bruce who has extensive, intimate, firsthand knowledge in dealing with the leadership of the Democratic party and their radical special interest groups, it is the mental illness known as "malignant narcissism." I believe her diagnosis to be correct.

Narcissism is defined as: "A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem."

Let's take these one at a time:

SELF-PREOCCUPATION:

The Democrat is, in fact, utterly pre-occupied with self. These are the children of "the me generation" who chose as the slogan that best represents their philosophy "if it feels good, do it." They are people who believe that "self-esteem" is more important than actually doing estimable things because feeling good is more important than doing good. The policies the Democrats seek reflect the self-importance of those who feel entitled to other people's money and the benefit of other people's efforts simply for being alive. It is not a coincidence that these programs that Democrats push are called "entitlements."

LACK OF EMPATHY:

Being so completely self-absorbed the Democrat is incapable of "empathy." In fact, the Democrat is so self-important he is unaware of the existence of others. Consider the famous Pauline Kael statement upon learning of Richard Nixon's landslide victory in 1972. "How did that man win," Kael cried, "I don't know anybody who voted for him!!!" Clearly if the cultural editor of the New York Times is unaware of the existence of a single Republican she and her ilk have no clue as to the existence and circumstances of others in far away places like Iraq and Afghanistan. To the Democrat the suffering of others is meaningless except in how it can be used as a tool for advancing their own agenda.


UNCONSCIOUS DEFICITS IN SELF-ESTEEM:

The Democrat suffers from a severe inferiority complex as evidenced by their constant sense of "victimization" where they are the weak and inferior always defeated by the strong. One recongnizes their inferiority complex in their belief that they cannot compete with "the bigger boys" and in their constant calls for their "big brother" (government) to come and save them as they are too weak and frail to win their own battles.

With all of the components of the mental disorder "malignant narcissism " present in the Democrat the insanity that the Democrats exhibit in their statements and policies now makes sense.

To the malignant narcissist unpleasant weather conditions in the interrogation room at Guantanamo Bay and the horrific torture and murder of millions are one and the same because, lacking empathy they cannot feel the suffering of others and thus cannot accurately assess their degrees. Further, the Democrats' pathological self-aborbtion frees them to see the suffering of others not as real suffering but rather as tools to be used to allieiate their own.

Democrats, like Pauline Kael, often don't even know others exist. Thus the suffering of others is not to be alleviated but rather to be used, spun, manipulated and even invented to serve their personal agendas and done without the slightest remorse. Dick Durbin seeks personal power and wealth and since nothing matters to him other than himself he has no problem vomiting upon the memory of the tens of millions of people murdered in the most horrific manner in order to gain personal advantage.

The concept of real suffering eludes the Democrat because, being insanely self-centered they -- like Kael -- assume that everyone else in the world is just like them. When the Democrat, having been blessed to live in the safe, prosperous and free United States hears that Iraqis are being tortured, for example, they assume that means Bloomingdale's closed early or that the cable is on the fritz. Devoid of empathy the Democrat sees pain and suffering as an abstraction.

The insanity of the leftist often results in the opposite reaction where the suffering of others is exaggerated. Surely this is often done for political advantage by Democrats unable to offer real and thoughtful arguments for being kept in any vestage of power, but it is also a pathological response to the Democrats' self-absorbtion. The likes of Dick Durbin can believe a lack of air conditioning for an hour or two is "torture" because, being spoiled, that is amongst the worst "tortures" they have ever suffered.

While on the one hand the Democrat cannot understand the pain of others in their self-importance they see their own pain as the only thing of importance. Since Republicans cause the Democrats "pain" by besting them in political discourse and at the polls, and because Democrats have an exaggerated sense of self-importance, to the leftist there is no difference between Republians and Hitler.

Democrats -- self-absorbed and devoid of empathy -- predicate their policies only on what advances their own selfish wants and psychotic needs. It is for this reason, for example, that the feminists fought tooth and nail to prevent the liberation of millions of Iraqi women from rape, torture and genocide. Other people are of no concern to the Democrats and thus they would willingly sacrifice millions of Iraqis to the most horrific of fates in order to undermine their political opponents in the Republican Party and to prevent George Bush from looking good. If George Bush looked good that would make the Democrat feel bad and their feelings are all that matter to them.

I've not read Michael Savage's book "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" but he sure does have it right in the title. And so, too, does Tammy Bruce have it right when she diagnosis it as "malignant narcissism." Those in the throes of this mental illness spew out insane rantings such as those of Howard "yee-ha" Dean, Ward Churchill and Dick Durbin and anyone who votes to empower these people should be aware that they are empowering very sick people.