EVERYTHING GOES IN THE GOP’S LAST DITCH ATTEMPT TO BOOST JOHN MCCAIN TO VICTORY

With little chance of winning on their merits, the scummier elements of the Republican Party are once again resorting to dirty tricks in their hope of leveling the field between Republican, John McCain and Democratic frontrunner, Barack Obama, who as of this writing leads the wrinkly old Republican in most of the “battlefield states.”

Targeting mainly minorities and so-called “low information voters”, most of these tricks are pretty mundane stuff such as the use of official looking flyers telling Democrats that they vote on one day while everyone else votes on another day, or the tactic of sending professional looking DVDs to voter’s homes warning of Islam’s impending attack against the West if the US elects anyone other than warmonger, John McCain. Then there is my personal favorite, the one they trot out whenever a Republican candidate is in danger of having his ass handed to him on election day: the official sounding rumor, which threatens to arrest anyone with unpaid traffic tickets or warrants when they show up at the polls to vote.

Now most people see this stuff for what it is and rarely if ever give it more than a cursory glance. But then there are those who take this garbage to heart and either switch their vote at the last minute, or not vote at all. In the interest of protecting these folks, I would like to see law enforcement take these issues more seriously and prosecute the offenders more often than is done at the current time.

And it is not just the scurrilous, quasi-legal political action committees and the 527’s that are the source of these last ditch efforts. Not by a long shot. No less a player than the Christian extremist group, Focus on the Family, has waded into the mix this election cycle with a mailer warning that if Obama gets elected, by 2012 pornographic magazines will be publicly displayed for all to see.

Now clearly this is ridiculous. But this sort of trash gains traction coming as it does from as famous a source as the Reverend James Dobson, Focus on the Family’s leader. Like many evangelical leaders, Rev. Dobson regularly violates the IRS rules preventing non-profits from politicking, and in a more perfect world his actions would have long ago resulted in his group having its non-profit status revoked.

But then again, in a more perfect world, there would be no need for dirty tricks as people would win or loose based on the quality of their ideas and not on how much fear they can generate among the unwashed masses.

I for one, want to live in that better world, a world that can and will be ours if we are successful in electing Barack Obama President next Tuesday.