Toxic Tea

Not even the person who knows Christine O’Donnell best will touch her intimately. This is not because she is physically unattractive; it is because she passes noxious gas disguised as thought. All right, I am being snippy. Doing so is a bit immature, but I cannot help myself. She is the sort of religious right-winger who believes the earth is an evil place, and she is doing her best to make everyone else in the world miserable enough to believe her. How did she get the Republican Party to nominate her as a senatorial candidate? Was it witchcraft? She did dabble in witchcraft. She admitted that in an interview with Bill Maher. The right wing bloggers are now in full attack mode. They are accusing Bill Maher of being a black mailer, an extortionist, and even worse as far as they are concerned, a liberal! I do not have the stomach to read those idiots, but I am sure they pointed out that the interview from which the excerpts were taken occurred nine years ago and that she has repented for her walk to the dark side. Maybe, but Mr. Maher did the right thing by posting those excerpts because her “dabble” in witchcraft reveals something very disturbing about her personality. The extreme opinions she holds today also indicate that she still embraces the dark side. The only difference between what she was doing when she dabbled in witchcraft and what she is doing now is that she now uses Christianity justify her destructive view of the world.

If Ms. O’Donnell was the only Republican nominee espousing extreme and paranoid views we could dismiss her as an aberration. Unfortunately there are at least eight Republican nominees who are members of the crowd dumping toxic tea into the political waters. Furthermore, the nomination of those candidates is just the latest and scariest manifestation of the Republican Party’s hard shift to the right. Most Republican politicians are opposed to any government regulation of the companies exporting our jobs. Leaders of the Republican Party also say they would repeal the regulations designed to prevent another economic melt down and regulations designed to protect consumers from the predatory behavior of giant corporations. The Republicans are also threatening to hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage in an effort to extort an extension of the deficit creating tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the nation. Make no mistake about it, the Republican Party’s cynical efforts to obstruct all reasonable attempts to deal with this recession attracts and encourages the extremists. If the tea party candidates are elected in November they will join the other Republicans who want to forbid abortions even in the case of rape and incest. They will also join the Republicans who are already attacking all social programs including social security, medicare, and unemployment insurance. The religious right does not want the government to regulate anything except what you do in your bedroom. They are not following the examples of our founding fathers; instead they are following the examples of Joe McCarthy and the John Birch society.

The Republican Party wanted to tap into the energy of the extreme right wing. They succeeded but at a horrible price. Rational Republicans who once acted responsibly are now afraid to oppose the lunatics who are determined to take this country into a very dark and dangerous place. Positions that were once considered too extreme are now being accepted. As the moderate Republicans who were defeated in the primaries will tell you, any and all compromise is anathema to the extreme right wing. In the religious right wing’s warped view of the world there is only good and evil. They believe the world is evil, and they are opposed to anyone who tries to make it better. The Republicans think this sour view of the world fits their partisan agenda of making our current government fail. They will soon discover that this negative energy is not a tool easily discarded. The religious right has been empowered. They are the Republican attack dogs, and they are determined to assert their authority over rest of the pack.

If you think things are bad now just wait until the Republicans shut our government down. Believe me, they will do it. The only thing that can prevent it is your vote. We are at the crossroads. Rational people must make rational decisions and they must act on those decisions. We can take the path to recovery or we can turn the other direction and slide into the abyss of self-destruction. The choice is yours. If you do not turn out at the polls to reject the nihilistic tactics of the Republican Party you will have no one but yourself to blame for the consequences of letting the religious right set the agenda.