As I am sure most people are aware by now, the Senate race here in Illinois has taken a turn towards the surreal. Last year, moderate Replublican, Sen. Peter Fitzgerald announced he would not seek re-election. This opened the floodgates of connected Replublicans who wanted the seat. Out of the primary rose former state’’s attorney Jack Ryan. Shortly there after things took a turn for the bizarre. Jack Ryan had been married to Jeri Ryan — an attractive actress best known for her role on Star Trek Voyager. After several media organizations sued to have the transcripts of their divorce proceedings opened for review, the dismissel of Jack Ryan was underway. Apperently, Jeri Ryan had accused her husband of pressuring her to attend public sex clubs in New York and Paris. Irregarless of the fact that these incidents took place within the bounds of marriage, and that these are two consenting adults who may disagree on matters of sexulaity (as many married couples do), Judy Baar Topinka, chairmain of the IL Replublican party, cut the legs off Ryan. Topinka, who never cared much for Ryan, decided she would rather appoint a candidate then defend Ryan to the Christian Conservatives. Thus began the spiral into wonderland.
After several weeks the Republican party began hinting it was courting, former Bears coach and Chicago icon, Mike Ditka. Ditka publicly hemmed and hawed for a few days, and then showing everyone that he was far more intelligent then his on-camera persona indicated essentailly declared he was no Arnold and didn”t want the grief that came with running for such a high profile office. Topinka and her crew then decided if they couldn”t go the populist route they”d go the conservative one. Topinka needed someone to run against Barack Obama, the very popular African-American State Senator and Democratic nominee. Finding that there was no one in Illinois crazy enough to expend their political capitol on a loosing Senate race — after all Topinka had waited far too long after booting Ryan to appoint a successor who stood a chance of victory — Topinka searched the country and returned with three time loser Alan Keyes. A former ambassador and radio talk show host, Keyes gained national prominance during the 1999 Republican primaries. Irregardless of the fact that he had criticized Hillary Clinton, calling her a carpetbagger, for pursuing a Senate seat in a state in which she didn”t live, Keyes packed his bags and made the following bizarre statement: “I must leave the land of my forefathers [Maryland] in order to defend the land of my spirit, of my conscience and my heart — and I believe that that land is Illinois.” Suddenly, Illinois had become Keyes” shinning beacon on the hill.rnrnTo refer to Keyes as a wacko doesn”t mean much these days when the line between wacko politicians and mainstream ones has become razor thin. But if anyone ever doubted the wacko credentials of Alan Keyes, they simply need to review his writings and speeches. Keyes’ writing style is that of a strained logistican whose had one coffee too many. Found among the writings on his website is an essay suggesting that States must, and inevitably will, establish a sactioned religion. Keyes’ argument, shrouded in a strange textual analysis of the Constitution, is simply that the Federal goverment is prohibited from enforcing a state religion, but State governments are not, and that these estblished religions are natural and inevitable. Keyes’ answer to the idea that if you don’t care for your state’’s religion, is simply that you should move to another state: Oklahoma — Methodist State, Pennsylvania — Lutheran State, New York — Catholic State, Texas — Evangelical State, etc. One can hardly imagine a time, outside of the Middle Ages, where religion has played more of a touch fire then it does today. Armed conflicts over minor differences in religious doctorines are common around the world today. Keyes’ answer is to create more religious distinctions not fewer. Keyes does not discuss what should happen when the pious people of Texas wish to convert the heathens of Oklahoma — but I”m sure there’’s a convoluted answer in his brain somewhere.
Keyes” chances of actually winning the Illinois seat are just about nil. Yet, the notion that the Republican party should endorse a man who has compared women who”ve had abortions to terrorists speaks volumes about the state of it’’s ideology. This is no loner the party of Abe Lincoln — who sought to preserve the union. For Topinka and the Replublican party, the recruting of Keyes is a cynical effort to bring their most converative voters to the polls in November. But it is the regular Republicans who suffer. Thoses who have supported the party for years now find themselves represented by a man whose ego and ideology are not theirs. It is hard to imagine that the party once represented by such giants as Theodore Roosevelt would stoop to hand-picking a wacko such as Keyes. Yet. this seems to be the trend: to prey upon people’s religion and fear to win elections regarless of the cost.
