Who's Going to Control Opie?

Jim Demint, head swelled from flattery by the easily impressed media, has decided to step up and become the de facto head of the Senate republicans.  He has said that he will block any bills before the session ends unless they are on his desk 24 hours prior.

Now, I can imagine that our Jim is a slow reader, but we can be fairly certain he is too busy doing the work of the voices in his head to actually read any bills.  Apparently, this is the Demint version of holding one's breath so people won't forget you are there.

I know this is not the caliber of professional that I want in the US Senate.  But I also wonder what his "fellow" republicans are thinking about his bullying.  Are they actually afraid of Demint to the point where they won't just send him to his room?  I hesitate to say that a smack upside the head probably wouldn't hurt.

But here we all are, taking this bully seriously.  Just like they kowtowed to Joe McCarthy back in the 50's.

We need to seriously look at how dysfunctional this man is.  Other than an occasional appearance on Jon Stewart's  Thank you, South Carolina segment, Demint was pretty much a nonentity until he found his home in the Tea Party.  With a campaign bankroll that he doesn't need in South Carolina, he has been giving favors to Tea Party candidates most likely to return those favors in Congress.

His views of how government should be run are no less extreme than McCarthy's were 60 years ago.

Our overstimulated media has once again focussed on the "kingmaker" idea rather than his actual positions, which are, quite frankly, scary.  Jim Demint is a scary person.  His faux-Christian views remind one of a Salem witch-hunt, but he's not going after witches, he is going after single parents and gays.  He has learned to keep his radical views to himself and his kind, and has been able to do so by avoiding any public forum that does not cater to his extremist views.

Whether the South Carolina primary results were due to fraud or voter stupidity, it conveniently left him with no one to force him into public debates, and coffers full of gold.  Just too convenient, in my opinion.

So what do we do about Demint?  I think everyone of all parties, in every state in the country, need to listen carefully to every word he says.  Because he is NOT kidding.  He will destroy our government.  He will kill our schools, our jobs, our way of life, and do it in the name of his "God".

The media needs to pay attention to Jim Demint.  They need to wake up and tune in to what he is saying.  They need to report his candidacy in terms of what he is campaigning on, and what his actions have proved in his six years in the Senate.

If Jim Demint gets re-elected, and brings along his Tea Party followers, it will be a bad time for we the people of this state, and of this country.

The Blahs

I get exhausted hearing what "they" have to say:  the Limbaughs, the Cheneys, the whole new crop of Tea Party candidates that the wacko right wing has nominated to run the country, Sarah Palin and Jim Demint, who in my mind should be linked forever -- wouldn't they just deserve that?

I get exhausted and then I feel the need to get away.  In other words, stop learning, stop writing, and of course the next step is, stop voting.

This is where many of us are right now.  In South Carolina, where our corrupt primary system is about as likely to change as Boeing is likely to pay its fair share for the right to take advantage of our cheap labor, we face a difficult choice.

If we are republican, we are going to stand in line for as many hours as it takes to make sure the folks who are going to run our schools, libraries, roads, hospitals and fire and police departments into the ground get elected, because they've promised us they won't raise taxes.

And if we are Democrats?  Do we vote for Alvin Greene and Ben Frasier?  Or do we vote for good people with strong democratic ideals who don't have a chance to win because they are third party candidates, have no deep pockets, or friends with deep pockets, but who are taking the chance of their lifetimes to try to right the wrong that is our primary system and our broken government?

Or do we stay home?

For me, staying home is not an option.  I will stand in line with all the good ole' boys and gals, and I'll vote for Tom Clements for Senate and Rob Groce for Congress, and those good Democratic candidates that somehow slipped through the primaries into the general election.  Because it would be wrong to not cast my one little vote.

Because this year if enough of us don't exercise that right, we could lose bigger than we did during the Bush dynasty.