".. where are the usual gang of pranksters, jokers and satirist politico wise guys and gals?"

Starting a thread late on a Friday night can be counter-productive. Posting here drops off significantly on weekends.

Don... I sit and watch the circus and ponder these questions for hours. My own observations lead me to these conclusions:

1)Only some of the extreme conservatives actually 'believe' all the stuff you hear about in polls. Some just assume that repeating negative talking points will gradually have an effect.... and they may be right.

2)The similarity of certain slogans & accusations make me almost certain that they come from only a few sources...perhaps Limbaugh being fed by the Koch brothers and consulting with Rove and Cruz... then having certain Fox News folk 'interview' those who can be trusted to repeat the latest slogan carefully. (I'd LOVE to be a fly on the wall during meetings when John Bohener gets his marching orders.)

3)There is a HUGE underground stream of money (partly in the form of campaign contributions) being fed to those conservative members of Congress who keep up the pretense.

4)" THEIR HEARTS DESIRES" include banning abortion, at the expense of other health care; continuing the process of voter suppression & Gerrymandering because they KNOW that demographics are not in their long-term interest unless they control Congress; installing judges... especially on SCOTUS... who will allow whatever it takes to establish fundamentalist Christianity to (at least) de facto influence the educational system; and enough control of mass media to promote whatever forms of conservative causes may arise.

5) I also believe that enough of the right-wing-nuts are not competent to understand their own goals & processes that they will continue to look foolish enough to the populace at large as they lock & load in circular firing squads that they are 'unlikely' to elect a president anytime soon. They do not look for intelligent, competent, educated candidates... and if they stumble upon one, he is quickly stifled in favor of purveyors of the **slogan de jour**. I sure hope #5 is right!