Randi Kreiss

The Halloweening of U.S. politics, take two

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Five years ago, just before the 2010 midterm elections, I leapt at what I thought was a one-time opportunity to compare the political landscape to a mean-spirited Halloween trick. Rage was all the rage that season, but fear seemed more appropriate — their rage, my fear.

It wasn’t the monster in the closet that gave me the willies; it was a Tea Party fave, Carl Paladino, running for governor of New York. Of course, he wasn’t hiding in the closet; he would never have considered being in the closet, gay not being an option, closeted or not. Of course, being a braggy, Family Values kinda guy, Paladino did have some skeletons in said closet, including a child from an extramarital relationship and a well-documented tendency toward bigoted diatribes.

Then there was Christine O’Donnell, a seriously undereducated candidate who was unemployed, inexperienced and, by her own admission, once given to dabbling in witchcraft. Still, she somehow won a primary and was running for the Senate seat vacated by Vice President Joe Biden in Delaware.

In Connecticut, meanwhile, Linda McMahon was running against state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. A longtime wresting industry exec, McMahon went into the ring in one match and kicked one of the men . . . not in the shins. She said she had no problem with women in her matches participating in degrading performances. Business is business, she said.

And for the record, Blumenthal was deceptive at best, a liar at worst, having misrepresented his military service — or nonservice — in Vietnam.

Sharron Angle ran against Harry Reid in Nevada that year. Virulently anti-immigration, she spoke before a group of Hispanic students and assured them (consolingly) that they looked to her as if they could pass for Asian.

In 2010 we were being told that the Tea Party, once a national joke, had real traction and could make itself felt in future elections. We were told that Sarah Palin might run for president in 2012. Michele Bachmann, an often livid Tea Party reactionary, was in Congress, and planning her own run for the presidency. Imagine, I thought all of that was scary.

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