Call me goofy, but I love Allen Keyes!

[Bat Boy]

Seriously.

When the Illinois Republicans hauled this fish on board, at first I was pissed as hell.

Now I see what they've done. It's a gift. They've essentially handed the election over to Obama, and made it entertaining.

'Cause Keyes is out of his fucking mind!

Latest bit of craziness, Keyes wants to do away with the 17th amendment. No more senatorial elections, says senatorial candidate Keyes! Let's go back to 1913 and have state legislatures choose.

Just put a propeller beany on this guy and dress him in footy pajamas. He's a loon...

[molly]

1. The guy is definitely insane

[IndianaGreen]

8. Keyes is not insane, and that is the truly scary part!

Many rightwingers want to repeal the 17th Amendment that allowed for the popular election of US Senators, taking that power away from the state legislatures.

You wouldn't be surprised to find out that many of those that want to repeal the 17th Amendment also want to repeal the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote.

The good thing about the Keyes-Obama race is that they will present how truly different the alternatives in November are. On one side is Obama speaking for enlightenment and rational thinking, on the other Keyes, speaking of patriarchal rule and a return to the Dark Ages.

[HawkerHurricane]

9. Now I get the redistricting thing!

With legeslatures gerrymandered into a Republican majority, and elimination of direct election of senators, the Republicans could give themselves a lock on the senate WITHOUT HAVING A MAJORITY OF VOTERS WANTING IT.

[IndianaGreen]

12. That's an excellent point, HawkerHurricane!

The then-GOP controlled Indiana legislature refused to apportion itself for the entire duration of the New Deal and well into the mid-1960s in order to negate the Democratic cities from wrestling political control away from the less populous rural communities.

Is this a return to that?

[barb162]

15. I agree

He isn't insane. He is very scary to me and his supporters are even scarier. His supporters don't care about logic, because if you say something logical to them, they just check their bible for guidance. When you have discussions with his supporters about getting religion out of the discussion of politics, they are unable to do so. They want religion in politics. Scarier still is how this segmentof the population is growing in this country. People tend to think they are not in this state, but then what in hell is Keyes doing here campaigning for a major party.

In your last paragraph I don't think Keyes's supporters give a damn about enlightenment. They want their defender of Jesus here in the form of Keyes.

[Susang]

26. He is here because no one else in Illinois was willing to run

Keyes is a bought and paid for distraction, meant to draw energy and focus from the presidential election. He has never lived in Illinois and knows nothing of the issues that Illinois voters care about.

I actually do think while he may not be clinically insane in the DSM-IV sense of the word, I'm sure that if you look through the book, you can find all sorts of personality disorders that apply. After all, there was just a large study of Americans that showed that the majority of us had at least one major personality disorder, paranoia being surprisingly prevalant. I think Keyes has most Americans beat on this one.

[barb162]

27. histrionic personality disorder

surely has to be one of the top ones for Keyes. I just want to slap him down (or yell "shutup already") when I see him pontificating in that bombastic style of his.

[tblue37]

16. Are you aware of

the female Republican state senator in Kansas who has frequently stated on the record that women should never have been given the vote and that giving the vote to women has been a disaster for America?

[Ediacara]

2. You're goofy :-)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. The 17th Amendment Was Part Of The Democratization Of America

or extending the franchise....


At the birth of our nation only white male land owners could vote... Then the franchise was extended to non landowners then blacks, than to women, and then to eighteen year olds... The direct election of senators instead of letting them be appointed by the governors of their states was part of this movement....


What other part of extending the franchise would Dr. Keyes like to retrench....


All this from a Harvard PHD...


Fucking scary....

[Morning Dew]

11. Like the Resident says

... If you own something, you have a vital stake in America.


I'm guessing the rest of us - the non owners, that is, are just useless bags of skin with no vital stake in anything.

[Zomby Woof]

4. Wonder if he would favor...

Repealing the 13th Amendment too? Conservatives love turning the back the clock, you know!

[mom cat]

7. Not to mention the First Amendment.

:hurts: Let's just flush them all and crown a dictator!

[Warpy]

5. That's beside the point

What they're doing is making sure the fundy wack jobs will get to the polls. Just having Idiot on the ticket wouldn't do it. They need to have one of their own. Keyes certainly fits the bill.

They don't expect him to win, never did. They're just trying to boost the religious nutbjob turnout, try to throw Illnois to Idiot.

[Bat Boy]

6. I'm not sure how strong the out and out nut job demographic is in IL.

I think even fundies believe this guy is barking mad.

[barb162]

18. The fiscal conservatives maybe

aren't wild about him. But the social conservatives love him. They just eat up every word that comes out of his ignorant mouth. What will be interesting is how many moderate GOP and fiscal conservative types will vote for him.

[HawkerHurricane]

10. Fundies won't vote for him.

"He says all the right things, but, he's, you know, Black."

[CaTeacher]

13. I have a confession to make--

years ago when Keyes was running for President one of my relatives actually voted for him in a primary (!)

This relative is a strong Democrat--and wanted to encourage the Republicans to nominate the weakest candidate possible for the national race. It didn't work--but still--most people have known for a long time that Keyes is WAY OUT THERE in his beliefs. I just can't see anyone truly wanting to see him in office.

[HawkerHurricane]

14. Ever see the 'Boondocks' cartoons of the year 2000?

MacGruder covered Keyes pretty well, especially the Republicans who agreed with what he said but wouldn't vote for him because of his color...

[CaTeacher]

17. no--I missed those!

I was living in the middle east during that election season. Do you know if these are available in a book or on-line? I bet they would be great and I would love to see them.

I love traveling--but it does make me miss out on some of the cultural experiences that my fellow Americans are having--like cartoons!

[HawkerHurricane]

19. Available in book...

Now I have to dig out which book... I didn't see them in a newspaper, I picked up the books.

[CaTeacher]

20. cool! I will definitely buy them--please send me the

info. I have a few gift certificates for my local bookstore that are burning a hole in my pocket!

Seriously--I think I would really enjoy seeing these--especially since I missed a lot of that election season.

[no name no slogan]

25. But they might, just to prove that they "ain't prejjoodiss"

...and then they'll use it against non-racists they know, as in "I'm not a racist. Why, I voted for a "cullerd" fella in that last election!"

That's the part that always cracks me up, quite frankly. And just goes to show how far we still need to go in this country.

[barb162]

21. Here's one of many posters to the Keyes web site

(there are a lot of people out there along these same lines. I expect them to be coming into IL to campaign and knock on doors for Keyes).



From: William Carter
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 10:58 PM Central Time

The stage has been set.

Things have come together to cause one of, if not the most significant decisions the citizens of the United States are going to have to make in the history of this great country.

The Superbowl incident.
The Increase of Nudity and violence on TV.
Liberal Hollywood injecting more and more homosexual scenes into their scripts.
The Banning of The Ten Commandments in the Courts and other public places.
The judges breaking the laws to promote homosexuality.
Finally the movie, “The Passion of The Christ”.

This is the Cross Roads of Cross Roads and if it’s not presented to the people in That way, so they can see the implications that will arise from their decision, then we as Republicans deserve to lose.

Just state the facts about what it is the Liberal Democrats believe in and want to see come to fruition.

This is what they believe in.

Killing their unborn children.
Judges ignoring the law in order to push a Liberal agenda.
Distorting the Constitution and all accompanying laws in order to establish more Liberal Lifestyles.
Totally eliminating God from our society.
Totally eliminating The Ten Commandments from all public places.
Rejection of the fact that our nation was founded upon Christian beliefs.
Homogenizing The Christian Faith.
Turning Marriage into a catch all for anything including the perversion of Homosexuality.
More nudity, violence and vulgarity on the airways.
Push condoms instead of abstinence.
Giving those that would attempt to kill us with WMD the capabilities of The First Strike.
Ignoring the fact that there is a need for some Profiling in protecting our nation.
Keeping firearms out of the hands of responsible citizens so they’ll be vulnerable to those that have no morals.
Affirmative action.
Race baiting.
Politically Correct Hypocrisy.

And I’m sure there are many more that can be listed and in whatever order is perceived most effective.

Just list, so the public can clearly see what it is Liberal Democrats are wanting to do to this country and then put it on them to do the right thing. It’s said that approximately 70% of Americans are of the Christian faith. They need to live up to that and be accountable.

We Are a Christian nation, but we are also tolerant and accepting of other faiths. God has blessed this nation and it’s time to acknowledge that.

The economy is coming back, the war in Iraq is coming to an end and what we have left is the war on terrorism and keeping our moralistic center in this country.

We need to fight to stay with the God that we established this country with. If we abandon God don’t you think it’s possible He could abandon us?

We can’t afford to pull any punches or dilute the message and I believe President Bush has the brashness necessary to deliver.

A Christian Republican,
William Carter

[CaTeacher]

22. not worried. From what I know, Illinois

is a pretty liberal state. I don't think this BS will go over big there. Let these freaks knock on doors--most people will either not open them--or will shut them in the faces of these nutjobs once they hear this wacko message of hatred.

[Susang]

23. Parts of Illinois are quite conservative

Still, Keyes will not play well there either. He may be saying the things that they would want to hear, but they would prefer they heard them from a white candidate.

Also, I don't know many individual voters who are in agreement with Keyes in regards to repealing the 17th amendment. Most people, whether they actually go to the polls or not, dislike the idea of other people choosing who represents them in Washington.

The only conservatives I hear who favor repealing the 17th are politicians and idealogues (members of the Cato Institute and the like). You rarely hear a non-connected member of the working class (at least here in Illinois) say they'd rather someone else decided the election for them. It will be amusing to see Keyes try to convince them otherwise.

[barb162]

24. I really hope you are right

I don't think it will be a close race. I think Obama will crush him. What gets me is that the IL GOP put this f---ing reactionary buffoon on the ticket in the first place. It shows the growing power of the fundamentalist movement in this country.

What I am trying to say is that we cannot ignore these people. They showed their power by inserting Keyes as their nominee for a try at a very powerful position. It just boggles my mind that this even happened in IL.