Unless Mitt Romney (or Jeb Bush) stops the Rick Perry steamroller, we are heading toward a referendum on the value of human life next year.
When Sarah Palin invented death panels to bash health care reform two years ago, with perfect pitch for political devastation, she planted a seed that has now flowered in the Tea Party frontrunner, who is being cheered for multiple executions in Texas by crowds who are also thrilled by the prospect of letting uninsured young people die.
How did Hope and Change so quickly morph into hate and fear? The confluence of a sinking economy, an African-American president and the Rupert Murdoching of the media? Too many signs point to the possibility that even a mild economic upturn might not be enough to a keep a cardboard cutout of a Texan from evicting Barack Obama from the White House.
Rick Perry won his first political race for agriculture commissioner running against a rule requiring farmers to get their workers out of the fields before they sprayed pesticide on them. Now, firing guns in the air at rallies, he presides over a state with more executions and less health insurance than any in the union.
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