[C]onspiracy theories are immortal because one of the features of a really good conspiracy theory is that very lack of evidence for the theory is taken to be yet more proof of the conspiracy. They are long-lived because the underlying mental pathologies are long-lived: As T. S. Eliot put it, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” ...
Republicans who have chosen to associate with the birthers have done their party and their country a disservice. And as Sheriff Arpaio settles comfortably into that political mental ward, the same must be said of those Republicans who choose to associate themselves with him more broadly. Those who cannot distinguish between the birthers’ flim-flam and the critical questions that face our nation in 2012 will not win and do not deserve to.
-- National Review, Conspiracy, Again, March 7 2012