Politics, Primary Results

Listening to major market media, it is easy to be surprised by the Republican's ugly war on women, working men and women, and the last century of civil rights progress. Watching State legislatures come up with "rape the patient" laws in Virginia and Arizona, and "screw the working stiff laws" in Wisconsin; the coverage makes it seem almost as though these are sui generis.¹

They are not: they are springing up from a sort of toxic waste dump of indecently evil ideas held by the so-called "Neo-conservatives," the dominionist quasi-Christians, and the politically deranged. Turn now to the third congressional district in Illinois.

Last night the count showed that Mr. Art Jones received 11% of the votes cast in the Republican primary. 11% of the voters chose the holocaust denying, anti-Semitic, conspiracy theory proclaiming, candidate! Mr. Jones' prejudices are no secret -- he participated in neo-Nazi demonstrations as a uniformed member, and has been proclaiming his holocaust denial in the election campaign. 11%! If that number holds up through the final count and certification, then about 1/10^th of my neighbors voted for the neo-Nazi. That State legislature has members who want to return women to chattel status should not surprise.

One of the effects of the 2008 presidential election is that evil is now out from under the rocks. The slime has emerged, counting on the fact that they are attacking a black man to cover them. The most outrageous attacks are now permitted they think, because the president has in the eyes of bigots no moral authority to call them out. Precisely because he is black, Mr Obama offends them. This is the year we see the racists in full, but generally code-worded cry. Calling the Obama administration anti-freedom because it wants to give women freedom to get basic health care is not naked racism: it is code worded sexism and racism. Mr. Jones' made one contribution: he was out and out racist and anti-Semitic.

The way evil works in our body politic this year, black people cannot call out the racists. If they do, they are "blindly supporting the black man. " That is the man who somehow had the nerve to think himself worthy of leading our, "Christian" (itself among these people a code word for "white") nation.

I can call it out. I am male, white, straight, Christian, and conservative (no the real, principled kind.) Sexism, racism, the worst sort of evil informs the election this year. I can say it.

Mr. Santorum: Mr. Jones is yours. You almost certainly the beneficiary of almost all of the 11%. Your voters include racist, anti-Semitic bigots. Almost none of them would ever vote for a Mormon. I do not hear you disavowing them, and I do not expect to hear that. I do not expect to hear that because I do hear you disavow John Kennedy's deeply principled and American speech about his real Christian faith. I hear you speak against Constitutional rights. I understand, as do you sir I am sure, that the "Christian Nation" they talk about just happens to predate Mr. Lincoln.

11% of my neighbors have made me ashamed to admit I have voted for some Republicans over the last few years. No more! I get it and I am gone. I shall be voting this Fall for Mr. Obama and Mr. Lipinski for Congress unless the Libertarians can somehow convince me they are the logical inheritors of what used to be the Republican party. Even if as I expect, Mr. Romney eventually wins the nomination, he has danced with the devil to get it, and his dance partner makes him a fatally flawed candidate.

The war on women, blacks and civil rights will fail Mr. Santorum. Even among white Republicans, you cannot win. That is the only result in Illinois that gives me some hope for the party's eventual return to its honorable roots. According to the media, the Republican voters this year, have been about 92% white -- and you are still loosing big time. That is the only good news, most of the white voters are not racists or sexists.

Racism is evil, sexism is evil, running for president against the Constitution is evil. Legislating against women, against freedom, for more government intrusion in private lives, is evil. Somewhere there is a Republican Symington. I do not know where, but somewhere. Fear him Mr. Santorum - he will be dealing with you when he emerges.



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1) Self generating discrete events. A legal term used to mean not of a pattern or conspiracy. The war on women, gays and liberty are not. The pattern exists: one must ony look for it