So, I think she/they are joking but of course they could mean it. We do sort of live under the shadow now that nothing can be spoken or sung or thought without the addendum of "Oh yes and also the left/right (pick your poison) sucks!" and I wonder if we'll ever see a time again where as a society we no longer stumble about through the darkness babbling such things. I mean, it's funny sure...but not when it gets to the point where  it seems a requirement that you have to declare it at the end of each phrase or belch.

  Which brings me to Norman and in 1968 he was on TV and as he and William Buckley proceeded to gnaw on each other's skulls suddenly Mailer burped out and defined the disease of the right.  "The disease of the right is greed, bigotry, insensitivity, and general stupidity." and he, being Mailer, smirked a bit as he finished off that quip while looking Buckley directly in the eye. Buckley's eyes widened and his head popped back a bit as if Norm had hit him with a phantom left hook. At which point Mailer went on to define the disease of the left. 

It seems the doctors found no cure and since 1968 the disease of the right, among those elected or appointed to positions in the Republican party, has metastasized and surely appears fatal.  It is a long, slow ,and ugly death it seems.  Which I guess is a roundabout way of asking, do things ever change?