You might be a bad person

...according to Ray McKinney

July 21, 2010 Jake Hallman

jake@connectstatesboro.com

    Do you ever look in the mirror and think, “I'm a bad person?”
    Almost nobody does that. Sure, we all do questionable things from time to time, but everybody has their reasons — even if they only make sense to themselves.
    Ray McKinney's world is much more black-and-white than that. He's the Republican who's headed to a runoff on Aug.10 against Carl Smith to see who'll face Democratic incumbent John Barrow for the District 12 U.S. House seat.
    To Ray McKinney, I’m a bad person because I’m a Democrat. Are you a Democrat? Voted that way, maybe? You’re a bad person, too.
    The One Nation PAC sent out a mailer smearing McKinney’s opponent, Carl Smith, because, according to the mailer, Smith once said “Democrats are good people” in an interview on Newstalk 970 on June 29.
    Though McKinney campaign consultant Ali Akbar insisted on Facebook that the mailer didn’t come from the McKinney campaign, McKinney has yet to say he disagrees with the mailer. Apparently it’s A-OK with him to suggest that anyone on the left side of the aisle is a bad person.
    That means that a majority of the House (where he wants to be) is made of bad people.
    He’d better watch out, because according to the last presidential election, there’s about nine million more bad people in the US than good people. In this very election, In fact, more bad people voted in the Democratic primary for the 12th District than good people who voted in the Republican primary.
    Personally, I’m not inclined to vote for anyone who’s told me I’m bad.
    Is this what it’s come to? McKinney was the top Republican vote-getter in the primary. But it looks like he doesn’t respect the other party at all. And he’s painted himself into a corner. If Democrats come up with a plan that’ll eliminate taxes and give everyone a unicorn for Christmas, he’ll be forced to oppose it, ‘cause, after all, they’re bad people.
    In fact, he’s set himself up to be an obstructionist to anything that might be looked upon favorably by Democrats, ‘cause they’re bad people.
    That’s not a way to build consensus, and that’s no way to govern. When the other side is “bad,” it’s your way or the highway. It’s six-year-old politics.
    But what else can we expect from a guy who gladly touts on his website an endorsement from the Tea Party Express, the group that was expelled from the national Tea Party Federation because of racist remarks from its spokesperson Mark Williams?
    There are a couple of other great howlers in the mailer, too — calling Barrow a “liberal,” for one. I sir, am a liberal. And John Barrow’s no liberal.
    Heck, for that matter, President Obama’s not that much of a liberal. But that’s a matter for another column.
    Barrow voted against health care reform. He signed an industry-drafter letter telling to FCC to side with big corporations against users on the issue of Internet neutrality. He’s been named “Blue Dog of the Week” by the  Blue Dog Coalition (he’s also a member).
    That’s not exactly liberal, unless you see everyone to the left of Sarah Palin as a Trotskyite.
    The mailer also ribs Smith over saying he wants people to trust government.
    That seems pretty reasonable, right? I mean, everyone wants to be able to trust government. That’s why people run for office. When it comes down to it, no one wants to live under an oppressive police state  where they’re wondering what hammer’s going to drop next.
    I can't imagine “I want to make sure that everything I do in government is untrustworthy” would be an effective campaign pitch.
    But in Ray McKinney’s world, government is always something to be feared.
    And y’know what? It probably should be if he gets elected.
    Update:
    It came to my attention late this week that significant portions of the Fantasy 411 column have been plagiarized from a number of sources over the column's entire run.
    I sincerely apologize. Plagiarism is never acceptable, and deals a serious blow to the credibility of the publication. The situation has been handled, and I promise to be vigilant to prevent such things from happening again.
    Jake Hallman is the interim editor of Connect Statesboro. He can be reached at (912) 489-9405 or via e-mail at jake@connectstatesboro.com.

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