If the beatings aren’t improving morale, why are they continuing?

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Totabuser) delivers the latest Republican response to anyone who has the temerity to suggest that the U.S. is mistreating the children it has taken from their parents and argued it does not have to keep safe, clean or warm.

“You know what? There’s not a lock on the door. Any child is free to leave at anytime, but they don’t. You know why? Because they are well taken care of.”

I’m sure he likes the idea of babies and children roaming the streets all by themselves as much as he likes to believe that anyone who doesn’t flee mistreatment must really like it. It’s easy to imagine Burgess, who is an ob/gyn shrugging it off when a patient has injuries that are consistent with domestic violence. If it’s that bad, she’ll just leave, right?

But his comment should make obvious what I’ve been saying for a while: There’s no point in trying to engage Republicans in civil debate about anything because they’ve decided to flip the table, shit on it and then set the whole thing on fire. Republican ideas are rotten. Republican politicians are rotten. Republican voters: rotten. And non-Republicans who tolerate them are starting to stink as well.