The GOP/Tea Party's "bat-spit crazy" formula may turn out to be a winner in November
Going Rogue The elephants are coming!
No matter how you view it, it's difficult to deny that the current election cycle has been marked by a higher than normal degree of daft political theater and a zanier than zany turn in the direction of mindless exceptionalism on the part of many GOP/Tea Party candidates.
Case in point: How easy is it to imagine the initial shock many witnesses must have undergone when during a debate two weeks from a potentially historic mid-term election, Delaware GOP/Tea Party Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell turned to her opponent and asked: "Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" The audience of law students burst into laughter.
In fact, just a day or so earlier, another audience endured an equally absurd, though less humorous incident when Nevada GOP/Tea Party congressional candidate Sharron Angle flat out told members of local high school's Hispanic Student Union that, "I don't know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me."
Meanwhile, I'm certain that quite a few Americans instinctively rolled their eyes a few weeks back upon hearing Newt Gingrich's channeling of Dinesh D'Souza's deranged psycho-babble: "only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior," sniffed Professor Newt, "can you begin to piece together (President Obama's) actions."
Remarkably, it doesn't end there. One can only imagine the initial reaction of anyone who's seen footage of a sinister-looking GOP/Tea Party New York Governor's candidate and racist philanderer "Crazy" Carl Paladino, threatening to "take out" a New York Post reporter, or how many Americans' were floored upon hearing Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's daffy assertion that: "There isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas." It is a statement that runs neck-and-neck with Kentucky GOP/Tea Party Senate hopeful Rand Paul's hypothesis that ""sometimes (coal) mines just collapse, you know? Nobody's fault. I think it is called gravity."
These baseless or nonsensical mutterings form a truly disturbing summary of unfiltered stupidity demonstrated by a group determined to change the course of America's immediate and long-term future. But it's probably more disturbing to know that one could go on for perhaps hours adding similar asinine statements from these and other attendants of a fairly disingenuous anti-big government agenda that appears to have engulfed a good part of the American electorate.
Indeed even as more such expressions of fringe lunacy continue to roll endlessly off their tongues like clowns tumbling out of Bozo's tricked out mini Cooper, it's become obvious that the sentiments behind them have, as previously noted, gathered traction among many Americans. With less than two weeks before the mid-term elections, the air hangs heavy with a particularly pungent scent of political change emanating from the architects of what is really just a bunch of synthetic populism. That proverbial breeze that seemed to whisper Louise has been upgraded to a storm that loudly bellows: THE ELEPHANTS ARE COMING!
In fact, as of this writing, it certainly does appear that some degree of a wild stampede is imminent. Having suddenly emerged from every orifice of the right-wing body politic like a nasty retro-virus, the GOP/Tea Party candidates are now poised to execute their agenda. Should enough of them meet with success this November, then the halls of congress may need to be made over with all the colorful accouterments of a three-ring circus in order to appropriately set the stage for its transformation into one of the goofiest political sideshow in the history of American politics.
If current trends hold, an insane clown posse of Tea-Party-inspired congressional candidates will tumble into Washington D.C., surrounded by blaring horns, booming drums and all of the prerequisite pomp and fanfare associated with circus acts. They will have gotten there by craftily exploiting a social upheaval of their own manufacture through acts of absurd political theater that would do the Ringling Brothers proud and merit a Cheshire cat grin of smug satisfaction on the face of P.T. Barnum himself over the affirmation of his best-known decree: "There's a sucker born every minute."
The Notorious G.O.P.
Many Americans readily acknowledge that America's forward progress over the past 24 months has been hamstrung by a notoriously do-nothing Republican wing of Congress and that a consequence of this sustained episode of legislative inertia is the American Dream slowly becoming just another chapter in an all-too-familiar tome of unrequited love. But that period may eventually be viewed as the good old days should Americans decide to send any from among this group of post-rational, bat-shyt-crazy passengers of one of Mr. Peabody's Way-Back Machines to the nation's capitol and governors' mansions. How far has this new wave of devo candidates floated off on their voyage from present day reality? Let's put it this way, even Satan's b*tch-kitty herself - Ann Coulter - is finding it difficult to "out-crazy" most of these GOP/Tea Party candidates.
This sudden march of the clowns with the painted-on faces of stern, constitutional scholars, has somehow managed to sidestep any consideration of federal government overreach innate to George W. Bush's legally-odious "Patriot" Act, as a constitutional point of contention. Instead, to their Dickensian delight, they have set their sights on, among other things: the privatization of social security; the elimination of the Departments of Education and Energy; the overturning of Roe v Wade; the repeal of the health care reform law; a DNA analysis of President Obama to determine his identity; the promotion of intelligent design; the overturning of gay rights laws; the revamping of Medicare; the repeal of the 14th amendment; the impeachment of the president; the elimination the minimum wage; the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich; the elimination of federal unemployment benefits; the elimination of Medicaid; the official declaration of America as a "Christian" nation; a constitutional ban on the imposition of "Sharia" law; and if necessary, a complete shutdown of the federal government.
Even Ayn Rand, the Right's patron saint of limited government and laissez-faire capitalism would likely shrug her shoulders in bewilderment over such an outlandish wish list of reckless priorities scared up by the lunatic fringe. If achieved, many of the societal traits that offer some absolution to the belligerence of "true patriots" in their insistence that America is the greatest nation on earth are likely to go the way of the Dodo bird.
