Right-wing ideologues created a media empire by turning politics into a pugnacious combat sport and ignoring inconvenient facts, following the Rush Limbaugh model.

Donald Trumpov promised to select justices from an approved list of Federalist Society ideologues whose views were known to all because that was how they made the list in the first place.

If Trumpov follows the advice of the ideologues in his circle and pursues a strategy of maximum pressure on Beijing, he could precipitate nothing short of a global economic meltdown.

But there has always been some restiveness among the right-wing ideologues in the House and Senate who really want to massively cut discretionary spending and the so-called entitlements to the bone.

"In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilante justice."