Thursday letters: Are GOP candidates crazy or hypocrites?

The bizarre, through-the-looking-glass world view of Republicans baffles me.

Rick Santorum says that “for the first time in the history of our country, our government is trying to tell us what we can believe” and “bully us … into conformity.” Ted Cruz calls the Democratic Party “extreme,” “radical” and “intolerant.” In psychological terms, this is known as “projection” — taking one’s own unacceptable impulses and attributing them to others.

How can GOP presidential candidates fail to see the irony of their statements in light of their party’s efforts to turn America into a theocracy?

Jeb Bush denounces the Obama administration’s “aggressive stance against” religious freedom, but Republicans think that religious freedom means that Christians have the right to impose their beliefs on their employees and use religion as an excuse to discriminate against their customers. Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson insist that the Supreme Court base its rulings on the Bible.

The self-proclaimed “party of limited government” is obsessed with controlling the private lives, intimate relationships and reproductive choices of American citizens.

Huckabee even claims the government is moving toward the “criminalization of Christianity.” Is promoting ignorance and paranoia a prerequisite for entering Republican primary elections — or are these guys just nuts?

Columbia