Tennessee incubator

Tennessee has become quite the incubator for Republican values over the past few years. And with that, it becomes quite the incubator for crazy, as well.

County GOP organizations (where the crazy is stepped up several notches) are passing resolutions taking issue with the Republican governor, who is not quite crazy enough for them. They want him to fire Democrats and replace them with Republicans. And they're really hopping mad because he hired a Muslim to an economic post.

Here's the funnest passage:

“To date, the Haslam Administration has displayed an unfortunate ignorance to the threat of Shariah,” (Kevin Kookogey, chairman of the Williamson County Republicans,) said in an email to TPM. “They seem willing to accept the claims and defense of the Muslim Brotherhood at face value, refusing to even consider that, perhaps, those bent on destroying Western Civilization might just be infiltrating our institutions. … It is not like this has never happened before. The Muslim Brotherhood is following the blueprint of the Communists, who infiltrated the highest levels of government and society in the 1950’s. Shariah, however, is an even greater threat, because it has cloaked itself under the auspices of a religion, thus confusing the uninformed.”

Awesome! And while some of the other counties mentioned in the story are podunk outposts where you'd expect crazy to thrive, Williamson County is actually a suburban Nashville county.

Another highlight, from the Williamson County resolution, is the misspelling of "offered":

“Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has elevated and/or afford [sic] preferential political status to Sharia adherents in Tennessee, thereby aiding and abetting the advancement of an ideology and doctrine which is wholly incompatible with the Constitution of the United States and the Tennessee Constitution,” the Williamson resolution, dated July 10, 2012, states.

What's good for me...

Here is a problem that cuts both ways: folks in the U.S. don't understand that their specific situation isn't the same as everyone else's.

This is part of a much larger problem with our overall psyche, but this particular part of it has helped the Republican Party stay legitimate. If people really understand how policy, etc., affected them, the GOP would be relegated to a 30 percent stake in this country, mostly made up of the top one percent of earners and libertarians (who would be wise to start their own party in that case).

I've long known that conservatives like to exploit the middle class dream of becoming rich -- many among the middle class sympathize with those much wealthier than them when it comes to raising taxes, because the American Dream is just around the corner, and you, too, will be making $250,000 any day now.

But this story made me realize that it cuts the other way, too. I always thought the rich had all gotten the memo about using the middle class' hopes and dreams to further their own goals, but it appears that for at least some of them, they also don't fathom that what is good for them isn't particularly good for all.

A quote, excerpted from TPM:

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. “I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them. 

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”

Maybe, in some cases, they do understand the impact. And in that, maybe there is some hope, yet.