The Halloweening of American politics

Randi Kreiss

Rage is all the rage this political season, but fear seems more apt — their rage, my fear.

It isn’t the monster in the closet that gives me the willies; it’s the Paladino running for governor. Of course, he’s not in the closet; he would never consider being in the closet, gay not being an option, closeted or not.

How did a reasonably civilized, traditionally liberal, northeastern state like New York ever wake up one morning to find Carl Paladino on the ballot? Gail Collins wrote a piece in The New York Times last Thursday, saying that Paladino told his wife about the child he had fathered with another woman as they were preparing for their own son’s funeral. One’s sex life is one’s own business, but this story breaks new ground for ugly — and mean.

And just when you thought it was safe to come out from under the bed, a seriously undereducated woman, unemployed, inexperienced and, by her own admission, once given to dabbling in witchcraft, won a primary and is running for the Senate in Delaware. Her opponent is a boring but knowledgeable and experienced county executive.

I watched Christine O’Donnell debate Chris Coons, and I was impressed by her willful ignorance, her steadfast insistence on avoiding substantive questions and her loyal adherence to the Tea Party’s Top Ten Lines. You know the drill: Let’s take back the country, defeat Obamacare, etc. and so on. I know, I know, she’s not a witch — not that I’d mind an intelligent, experienced, open-minded practitioner of the dark arts — but she is woefully uninformed and pathetically unprepared to serve the people.

Better an educated, progressive witch than a woman who believes that masturbation is adultery and evolution is a myth, and who is unable to cite any recent Supreme Court decision.

Connecticut Republicans are running Linda McMahon against State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Even when it’s not Halloween, Mc McMahon is one scary lady.