These observations should be filed under “things that I should no longer be shocked or surprised by but still am.”

Christine O’Donnell:  what a childish person she is!  She, Sarah Palin, and others of their ilk so often behave like extremely wilful, childlike  spoiled brats any time they don’t get their Own Way.  Childishness  in children is, of course,  normal and often charming; childishness in supposed adults quickly becomes exasperating.   I can’t see them as psychologically or emotionally mature adults.  They remind me of Jim & Tammy Faye Baker, another very childlike couple (remember their tears of self-congratulation for the expensive toys they bought with their followers’ donations?).  They throw tantrums, pout, or clam up and storm off in a huff anytime they are asked to respond like a sane adult. That evidently makes them feel put-upon and mistreated.

Actions speak louder than words. Their actions, their behaviors reveal underlying beliefs and assumptions associated with “magical thinking.”

Implicit in their behavior is the belief that even  when running for public office, as a public trust,  a public servant, they should never be asked questions they don’t want to answer. Their assertions should never be questioned, no matter how off-the-wall, baseless, weird,  and outrageous those bald-faced assertions may be. I think their behavior also indicates they believe:

*"Asserting something as true makes  it true!” (If I say it’s so, then that makes it so! I invent reality as I please!)

*"Whatever I feel to be true is true!” (Because I either wish or fear it to be true and my feelings are the ultimate facts.)

*"I have an absolute right to lie because it’s not lying if I don’t admit it’s lying!” (Lying isn’t really lying when I do it, because I’m a good person.)

*"There should never  be any negative consequences for my lying and foolishness!” (Such as loss of face, loss of credibility, disbelief, or ridicule.)

*"I have a right to demand that everyone believe my lies!” (Anyone who doesn’t is persecuting/victimizing/abusing me.)

*"I should never apologize for lying, misstating facts, or smearing people!” (That’s a sign of weakness.)

It’s pretty amazing when you spell it out and make the implicit explicit. I have long had a belief that as a society we have lost any real sense of what it means to be a psychological adult.  This behavior is much easier to laugh off and/or forgive in private individuals,  but less so in those who feel entitled to be top leaders,  influencing if not controlling, the lives of millions of other people.  I do not want to live in an America ruled by  a wilful, bad-tempered spoiled child.

Reminding myself that narcissists don’t really love themselves also helps me be more forgiving.  Narcissists love a false image of themselves, not their real selves.

The Tea Party types strike me as very childish people, too. Their nostalgia is really a longing to return to an idealized, sanitized memory of childhood when the world seemed less complex, difficult, and threatening, only because they were children then and protective adults shielded them from premature knowledge of adult realities. they had not yet eaten the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  But there’s no going back now, only forward.

Politicians of any stripe, male or female,  who behave like resentful, angry Spoiled Children cannot save us.