Political world
by Jon Worley

I've been trying to write about something other than politics the past few weeks, and it's been hard. But I've persevered, and perhaps my columns have even been the better for it. Now, though, the time has come to climb back into the arena and crash a few blows.

There must be a sense of euphoria running through the Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill these days. Life has become damned easy, and unless they utterly shoot themselves in their collective foot, they should have a majority in both houses of Congress after the 1998 elections. Yeah, I know, the party in the White House never makes gains in off-year elections. But then, the party holding the White House never makes gains when its president wins a second term, and look what happened last year.

The main impetus for yet another shift away from the Republicans is this bizarre posturing on the "flood relief" bill. As most everyone knows, the main section of this bill focused on sending big wad of cash to North Dakota, Minnesota and other places hit by natural disasters this year. The Republicans, doing exactly what Democrats have done in the same position, attached all sorts of amendments to the bill, including one that would encourage the Census to undercount minority citizens in the year 2000. People who aren't white don't tend to vote Republican, you know.

The Prez did his job and vetoed the bill. All this is normal. The surprising thing is that the Republicans kept insisting that they are "doing the right thing" and that they are not "playing politics as usual", but "playing the game the way it's supposed to be played". Whew! That's a lot of quotation marks. But, see, in reiterating the word "play", the Republicans have merely reinforced the Democrats message. Alright, so they caved in to massive public pressure and did the truly "right" thing. That didn't save them from a massive public relations disaster. Doesn't matter. It's as if, after years of playing the cerebral money crunchers, the Republicans are now the party with an emotional political message. A message that preaches greed, self-interest and graft.

On top of this pot of trickle-down stew sits the "moral majority" ideals, waiting to be skimmed off. The problem is, Republican lawmakers are no more moral than anyone else. Here in York County, a Republican state senator is under investigation for patronizing prostitutes. In Clearwater, Florida, the Republican chair of the Pinellas County (population 850,000) Commission resigned last year after being busted with more than 2 grams of coke, to be used "for social purposes" with the two young women he had paid to be in attendance at his private party. A member of the "God Squad" team of state legislators in Florida pleaded guilty to patronizing prostitutes. Other former members of the "God Squad" are in jail for offenses such as check kiting and bribery.

And this climate of intolerance masquerading as moral outrage has produced people like Timothy McVeigh and the Olympic bomber (who likes to rant against "preverts" and abortion). As the McVeigh defense shows, psychopaths can live right next door. They can look like and live like exemplary citizens. And yet, when the time is right, they can tap into a growing wave of hatred and kill randomly.

Right now, the vast majority of wierdness in this country is being perpetrated by right-wing types. Call it the Summer of Hate or whatever you like. Perhaps in 2000 our revolutionary generation will be wearing campaign buttons that say "Bent for Trent" or "Bomb for Strom". The fact of the matter is, this stuff is scaring people, and as long as the Republicans refuse to disassociate with folks like the NRA and militia groups, the Democratic Party will continue to gain strength. I'm not entirely opposed to this propect, of course, but the cause spooks me out. It has been painful to watch my country become fueled by fear, bitterness and hatred. We've got to stop this before events really get out of hand.

In York County, Pennsylvania, Jon Worley watches as the Republicans stake out the liberal ground and the Democrats stake out the conservative. Scratching his head, he volunteers five hours a week in the local Libertarian "Free the Weed" office.

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