Maybe the “fever” metaphor is more accurate than he realizes:

…if America’s body politic continues to run a fever, that means it is still suffering from the underlying illness. And if the Republicans are fevered–or are the fever–then it follows that Obama and the Democrats are the infectious agent.

When you think about it this way, the metaphor makes perfect sense. The body politic heated up during 2009 and 2010, as Obama overcame its resistance and advanced his agenda. The 2010 election was a massive immune response, which seemed to have restored a measure of health.

By 2012, when both Obama and House Republicans were re-elected, the fever seemed to have broken on its own. Instead, as we now know, the Internal Revenue Service administered an anti-inflammatory treatment that merely masked the symptoms of the underlying infection.

Taking a longer view, one could see America’s current condition as a chronic one, which has gradually grown worse over decades. “Chronic infections become chronic in the first place due to an insufficient initial immune response,” Durant notes. If a virulent strain of the bug has now produced an acute fever, it may be a sign that the country has some vigor left.

Ultimately, the only cure will be to wipe out the nasty virus that continues to infect the body politic from the White House.