The Real Scare

Ain’t nobody does scary like the Republicans. Even Democrats, who’ve been scaring the elderly for years saying that the GOP would cut their Medicare, can’t hold a candle to the right wing fright machine once it gets enough cheap American gasoline inside it. This week was a banner week for scary, and it’s going to grease the midterm slide so completely, that the Democrats won’t need Joe Biden around anyhow.

Never mind that Ebola is devastating West Africa and wreaking havoc on international travel and national psyches. It’s now a political issue and a subject for conspriacy theories. Some are comparing the government’s response to the outbreak to GW Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, though the scale is, at this point, much smaller. And of course the anti-government crowd is blaming the government, the CDC and local administrations for fumbling the response. There is an element of truth in this. Potential carriers should not have flown on commercial airlines, nor should hospitals be unprepared for possible outbreaks.

Now, here comes the fear. If it’s not Ebola, it’s ISIS and the scary possibility that our borders are so porous that diseases and Islamic terrorists are pouring into the American southwest. With the economy growing slowly and the stock market sagging, it’s more evidence to many that the Democrats do not deserve to keep their majority and since most of the Senate races are in red states, well, the writing’s on the wall. I have been saying that the Democrats will hold their majority in November, but that will now depend almost solely on turnout.

So make sure you get out and vote. And don’t be afraid.

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