The party of patriots, the "us" in "us against them," the party that claims a patent on the love-of-America brand, is become the party of distortion, lies, personal attacks, slime; and the party of voter suppression. One on top of another, the stories pile up: deliberate attempts to deceive voters, to challenge them, to reach into the polluted well and come up with new ways to prevent voting. It's as much as admitting that in the battle of ideas, they have none; or they have no faith that theirs might prevail in a fair fight.
Where's the outrage? Where are the voices on the right, crying "enough." Is there no one on that side to say, "We are better than that. This is America. We should battle in the arena of ideas." Silence. It's beyond shameful. It's a disgrace to them, to this country, to our future. There have been defections: many newspapers, many prominent Republicans have announced their support of Obama. And while it's good that such switches have been based on substantive issues, I've heard no one on the right speak out against this most fundamental perversion of democracy, this evidence that, for all their professed love of country, what they hate is its very foundation.
I'm not a vindictive person. But this time, I hope for a resounding rejection of the tactics, a rising up of people from every state saying, ENOUGH!! We can't afford this. This will not do. This kind of politics -- Rovian, Orwellian, Machiavellian; destructive, undemocratic, uncaring, cynical, antithetical to everything I believe -- I long to see it end resoundingly, in the only way it can: by a reaction so obvious, so monumental, so undeniable that it will never, NEVER, be used again.
No matter the outcome of the election, in this, I know, I will be disappointed.
