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The Republican Disease vs. Reality

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Bonacic turned this small, tragic, local event, into a microcosm of the Republican disease. Like an opportunistic virus, when they sense a weak moment in possible hosts – us – they want to jump in and spread their infection, fear.

Like a virus, they do it for a reason. Their own survival.

Bonacic won his last election on fear mongering.

His opponent was a woman named Susan Zimet. He ran TV ads and sent out lurid flyers to spread the Republican disease. As reported, accurately, by Steve Israel in the Times Herald Record, the ads went like this:



A hooded thief, crowbar in hand, is about to rob a house in the dark of night. As a dial tone beeps, a somber female voice says:

"What would happen if you called the police and no one answered your call because politicians like Susan Zimet tried to cut police funding 50 percent?"

The words on the TV screen paint an even bleaker portrait of Zimet by eliminating the words "tried to":

"(Former) Town of New Paltz Supervisor Susan Zimet cut police funding 50 percent."

As the man continues to stalk the house, the phone hangs up and the sound is of stolen silver clanking. The voice says:

"Zimet fought to take police off the streets and put families at risk. The police chief called it 'a horror show.' "

Then, as a red circle with a line through it slashes Zimet's name, these words flash in red: "Susan Zimet Wrong on Public Safety."


The facts:


Zimet never voted to cut police funding in half. Amid discussions over who should pay the police the Village of New Paltz, the Town Board in September 1998 said it would fund the town police force for six months, until the village passed its budget. This represented half the year's police budget.


And Bonacic won with that campaign.

There it is, the essential message of the Republican Party: We're afraid, let's kill somebody.

It's doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't matter if the only person killed was killed by friendly fire, let's kill somebody. It doesn't matter of killing somebody will actually make a difference, let's kill somebody. It doesn't matter if we invade the wrong country, let's kill somebody. Let's not worry about what happens afterward, we have to kill somebody. There are bad guys out there, let's kill somebody.

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LARRY BEINHART is the author of SALVATION BOULEVARD,  a major motion picture with Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Marissa Tomei, Ed Harris, and Jim Gaffigan, WAG THE DOG, The LibrarianFog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin  and HOW TO WRITE A (more...)
 

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