The campaign for Party control of our country has entered a troubling time.  The GOP Camp is stirring the pot, adding the spice of violent threats, flavoring with acidic language, hoping for a secret potion.  The stew is beginning to boil, steam is wafting, dark clouds forming, and the warlock is pleased.  The dark arts of Rovian politics never produce positive results.  Dark Arts bring out the worst in people – The Secret Service and Capital Police are on alert.

The stew is poison.  With temporary relief from pain, the long term affects are overlooked.  Poisoning the political discourse encourages the loonies to come out to play.  Groups such as the Tea Party and Freedom Works have organized to remove the direct heat from the GOP – slow cooking will result in tender and easily managed feelings.

Properly mixed, the secret potion can turn Obama into a terrorist, a warmonger, a comrade to Putin and Ohmydidhesayjihad, a mixed race person with Chinese lineage, a closet communist, a Nazi, a socialist, and perhaps even challenge his sexual preferences.  The ultimate in character transformation would be to cast Obama as a Liberal.

The road to the white house is made of yellow bricks.  Every turn brings a new danger.  The winged monkeys are flying.  And the winged monkeys are eager to please their master.  Winged monkeys do not have good judgment – they act on instinct – and they are dangerous.

A local cases of loonyness comes to mind.  True story – There was a man called “Corky.”  Corky had a hard life, his emotional trauma distorted his powers of reason.  Eager to please just about anyone he would commit any act requested.  One day Corky hooked up with a local thug.  The local thug wanted to rob a Drug Store, and he had the guns.  They pulled their car into the alley behind the store, and Corky was sent in to do the job.  Corkey pointed the shotgun at the old man, the pharmacist, the owner of the store.  “Give me your money,” Corky said.  Mr. Sherman said, “No, you can just shoot me.  So Corky shot Mr. Sherman, killed him.  The psychological evaluation noted that Corky had a ‘dull-normal’ intelligence.  Corky did what he was told.  Corky was one of the flying monkeys – eager to please the master.

Our fear about the depth of nastiness of the GOP campaign is that they are calling out the flying monkeys.  Mindless creatures eager to please.  These folks can be stirred up, and that is just what the GOP wants.  The radical right has lost all sense of integrity and dignity.  They would send out mindless creatures to reek havoc on the political landscape.

We once thought former Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska had been overcome by the agents of the Dark Arts – today we realize she is a chief chef in the kitchen.  The agents of Power, of Control, of intimidation, of lying, of hate speech, lusting for fame – the agents that transform innocent people into forces of darkness.  The GOP has mixed a powerful potion of danger.  They are like desperate rats in a corner, hissing, growling, gnarling, spitting, preparing to pounce.

Desperation is a poor excuse for political strategy.