Nadir

This weekend was a real low point for a race that’s gotten national attention for its dirtiness. North Carolina’s US Senate race has been nasty and this weekend it got absurd. On Friday night I watched in disgust as Kay Hagan proclaimed her indignation at Elizabeth Dole for “bearing false witness against a fellow Christian.” Lady, you’re lucky I’d already voted, because that just about did you in for me. Seriously, that’s what you’ve got? Everybody and their brother was already all over that crappy Godless ad, and you had to go with the righteous anger? If you couldn’t ignore it, couldn’t you at least have said that religion has nothing to do with the US Senate? That even atheists deserve representation? Because, last time I checked, we were free to believe in zero, one, or countless gods (to paraphrase Jefferson), and we still got to pick two senators. Has that changed? Really, is it still worth winning an office if you have to turn your back on ideals on which this country was founded (i.e., religious freedom and separation of church and state) in order to win it? Perhaps Kay can tell us on Wednesday.

Not to be outdone, Liddy’s got an ad on both radio and television declaring that illegal immigrants have moved here because Kay Hagan supported their right to get drivers’ licenses. That don’t make no sense. All the disgraceful pandering on immigration this campaign season has taught me that these folks don’t care about the law and have doubtless broken multiple statutes to get here, therefore they deserve none of the rights and privileges afforded by this great state or nation. Well, who knew they cared so damn much about drivers’ licenses? But Dole says it, so it must be true. They don’t come here because of the business interests that make so much off their cheap, unprotected laboring hides. They come to North Carolina for … drivers’ licenses? A little laminated plastic and the huddled masses, the wretched refuse of other teeming shores head straight for the NC-DMV. I could say I’m surprised by the intellectual bankruptcy of this ludicrous contention, but we’re talking about Elizabeth Dole. Honestly, is it tomorrow yet?