The problem with the G.O.P. isn’t callousness, greed, or even self-righteous asshattery. It’s all of the magical thinking:

Take the new Republican Senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis, who must have thought this annecdote would help strengthen an argument about role of government as reported in the Washington Post:

Tillis said he was at a Starbucks in 2010 talking to a woman about regulations and where businesses should be allowed to opt out. His coffee companion challenged him, asking whether employees there should be required to wash their hands.

As a matter of fact I think this is one where I think I can illustrate the point,” he recalled telling her. “I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says we don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom. The market will take care of that. It’s one example.”

As Colby Itkowitz points out in a parantetical: ”Is requiring a sign not a regulation?” Putting logic asside, how much do you have to love liberty to be against public health policies like hand-washing? Or is this just a costly signal? And if so, is the demand to signal to the base creating a one-upmanship which has forced some of those seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination to come out against mandated vaccination? I want to beleive that they are smarter than this and that they just assume their voters aren’t.

The Republican Party circa 2015: pro-guns, no shots, and very dirty hands.