Taegan Goddard is right, that one of the key turning points in the healthcare reform bill was Joe Wilson’s outburst, showing the nation as it did the GOP as a party of rudeness and “Just Say No.” He may end up responsible for better healthcare for many Americans, though it is still up in the air how many red states, where they need the public option most desperately, actually avoid providing care for their citizens. Is it poetic justice that this healthcare reform bill is likely to serve blue states far more comprehensively than it will red states, with its “opt out” provision? I’d wager it is not all that likely that even red states will opt out en masse, and the prevailing wisdom, at least, shows that Nevada will not opt out. But that’s a minor debate. This is really about the GOP actions of rudeness and ignorance that made healthcare reform possible.

It’s more than just Joe Wilson, though his rudeness in response to Barack Obama’s speech may have coalesced the Democrats wrangling over healthcare reform. (Perhaps the biggest example of hypocrisy is Joe Wilson’s wife coming down with Swine Flu.) But while Joe Wilson may be the poster child for the healthcare reform debate, so much so that I would rename the bill the “Joe Wilson ‘You Lie’ Healthcare Reform Bill,” the GOP should be worried that boorishness and ignorance and even racism is coming to define the GOP brand. It is debatable, after all, whether it was stupidity or racism that led to the posting of racist pictures on the newly revamped GOP web site. Neither conclusion is good for the GOP brand, however.

Examples of teh GOP stupid abound, from Sarah Palin and “death panels” to Michelle Bachman ranting about reeducation camps. These particular instances of whackjobbery get bounced around among the right wing talking heads, but the majority of Americans understand it for what it is — there’s some major stupid going on at the GOP. We’ve got the RNC Chair, Michael Steele, trying to lure African American voters with fried chicken and potato salad, while the real leader of the GOP, Rush Limbaugh, gets punked. Joe Wilson isn’t anything more than a small piece in a trend of rudeness, ignorance and racism, and the GOP, for its own good, needs to recognize that.

I have faith that the GOP will not do that. I guarantee when I post a link to this story on my facebook account I will get a nonsequitor comment that says something like, “Oh yeah, but what about Nancy Pelosi,” a sign that surely there will not be much needed Republican reform anytime soon. That pleases me no end.

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