Scary Stuff

(Click on image to enlarge so you can see the fine details.  Then please come back.)

So, Happy Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, another pagan holiday the Christians swiped and revamped, making it a paler than pale version than it was.  Now it's supposed to be a scary, monster-filled evening, with the upside being that little kids get free sugar-rushes if they're brave enough to ring a doorbell.

With that in mind, I was absolutely delighted with David Horsey's column from yesterday.  This man freakin' gets it!  This really is a scary time, one that will legitimize the worst of the human psyche should Romney win.

It is impossible to know if Mitt Romney would turn out to be a good, bad or a mediocre president, but one certain downside of a Romney victory is that it would reward the most venal forces in American politics. ...

From Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Donald Trump to all the anonymous creators of the wild fabrications that churn out of websites and go viral in emails, the relentless vilification of Obama has been unprecedented. Sure, every president suffers unfair criticism. Many of our most effective presidents, from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton, have been slandered and hounded by critics. But Obama’s detractors have plumbed new and revolting depths of mendacity.

Obama’s birthplace, his paternity, his religion, his academic attainments, his citizenship and his loyalty to the country have all been called into question by people who feel no moral qualms about spreading fabrications and untruths. Any unfair tactic, any lie is justified in order to “take back America” from someone they refuse to accept as a legitimate president, despite the indisputable reality that he was elected by a majority of American voters in a near-landslide of electoral votes.   [Emphasis added]

And what hurts this ex-lawyer most is that it was helped along by the Supreme Court in its Citizens United decision.  Our owners are only too happy to fund the wing-nuts in their drive to demolish a man, who, while certainly not perfect, didn't fit their mold.  And that's what the last four years have been about, as Horsey reminds us.

The ever-waffling Romney is not their perfect candidate, but, for now, that does not matter. He offers their one and only chance to drive the usurper, Obama, from the White House. That has been the right wing’s objective every minute of every day for four years, and vindication of their dishonest, un-American crusade would be the worst result of Mitt Romney’s election.

And that just scares the hell out of me.