Impressions Are More Important Than Substance

 

Today The IP read a pretty cool opinion piece in the NYT from an old-school Appalachian. She was commenting on the Tennessee race for Lieutenant Governor where two men “…to a troubling degree, made Christianity a keystone of their campaigns.” That a Tennessee native sees making one’s religion a focus of a political campaign “troubling” says a lot about a lot of Southerners you never hear about. She goes on to note the constant TV ads from one of the candidates declares how “We must restore America to its Judeo-Christian roots” while the other guy tells viewers how he has “Bible study every week.”

Using one’s Christian pedigree to garner votes is not limited to The South, it’s just acute around here. Most politicians here feel compelled to wear their Christo-Conservative credentials on their sleeves, much like the Nazis wore those Swastikas. They try to appeal to the coveted Christian Conservative “base” by making sure their ads, posters, and robo-calls mention how they are “against gay marriage” and how they are “for family values.” It becomes funny when the race is between two Republitards; they each try to find some kind of weak spot in the other’s Conservative armor. In Georgia’s race for Governor, one of the candidates is spending a lot of effort to associate his opponent with, God-forbid, Gay rights: “Records prove Handel’s support of gay adoption, domestic partner benefits…” recently declared the Nathan Deal camp. Meanwhile, Karen Handel, the accused, is furiously backpedaling from what seems to be communications that make the accusation true. And to make things even more F’d up, Sarah Palin is endorsing Handel, and “Mr. Creation,” Mike Huckabee, is supporting Deal. It’s all a game of “who can seem most conservative.”

One of the more egregious portrayals of “family values” campaigning this year involves the son of Dan Quayle who is running for Congress in Arizona as a Republitard supporter of wholesome and fatherly heterosexuality. You can tell by the photo he uses in his campaign “literature:”

Now, with the little girl on his lap and the other girl gleefully engaging him, one (especially a gullible Arizona “conservative”) would assume those were Quayle Junior’s own kids. Turns out they are those of somebody else. He’s just using them to make him LOOK like he has kids. Hey, a picture is worth, at least, a thousand votes.

WTF? I wonder if Quayle Junior can spell “disingenuous.”

All this political crap calls for a distraction; a cool YouTube of one of The IP’s favorite bands. Please enjoy this awesome video of the best guitar combo outside of The Ventures. It’s The Shadows from acrost the pond in an eerie, visually low-fi version of their hit Apache:

TURN ON YOUR SPEAKERS AND ENJOY