The Republican congressional delegation — particularly the members of the House — are completely creatures of the base. They are former state legislators and state senators who got elected to those offices espousing ideas that likely were further out there than the ones they’re spouting now. In large part, they were raised within the base’s political structures, both inside and outside of government. They are the product of a closed information society, with its own history and its own science and its own truth. To borrow a line from Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail, the Republican members of the House are the fking base, motherfker. They’re not asking for permission to do the right thing, and they’re certainly not waiting for this president to provide it. They’re not posing. They are not doing what they’re told. They’re doing what they believe.

Charlie Pierce on why Barack Obama will not find common ground with the Republicans in Congress

(emphasis mine)

You know this, and I know this, but Barack Obama is unwilling to recognize reality.