It has come to my attention that history is repeating itself or at least it is starting to rhyme. In 1994,the Christian Coalition under Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed had a "Stealth Candidate" strategy. Basically, this was having members of the Christian coalition run as moderate conservatives when in actuality they were radical right theocrats. Michelle Bachmann was one of the products of the this strategy.
The races that they ran for were mostly offices such as school board, city council, county commission and the like. These are smaller races tend to get less attention, require a smaller number of votes to win and therefore can be missed until it is too late. All of a sudden your local school board is voting through all sorts of bizarre, spooky and downright fascist policies.
You may say okay, a bit of trivial history but, what does that have to do with today? One of the points that was not covered by the media was that the Tea Party folks are doing the exact same thing. They are putting candidates with strong organizations into the field in these races. Just because the tea party does not have the numbers to elect a President, Senator, Governor or maybe even a Congressperson does not mean that they are just a nuisance, they still can screw up your community in many ways that could have profound effect on your life.
Yes, I know these races are not as sexy or interesting as the races nearer the top of the ballot. Having said that let's face it these are the levels of government that effect you most directly in your day to day life. These are the folks that will detrimine the fate of your community or neighborhood.
Do you really want a tea partier running the school board?
Do you really want to have to choose between street repair and police protection?
Do you really want to help your kids with their essay on death panels?
I will also tell you this. These meatballs got on the the school board in my hometown. This was back in the early to mid 90's. Even though they did not have a majority and only served a short time; they did a huge amount damage. That school district went from being rated consistently in the top 50 nationwide back in the 80's and even a year or two in the top 3, to not even on the radar screen. Almost a decade and half later later that school board is still trying to clean up the mess and has not recovered.
Let me say that again, these people took a school district from the top 10 nationaide to the sub-basement in 2 to 3 years and that district is still feeling the effect and has not recovered almost 15 years out. So you now understand why I am obsessed with trying to ring the warning bell?
So what is my point? Pay attention to these races, ask questions and be informed maybe even get involved or run. Hell, I find these campaigns to be the most fun and productive.
Comments are closed on this story.