HIde! HIde! The Homos Are Coming!

    During  the Depression era a friend of mine lived in the deepest, poverty-ravaged parts of the South.  Options in public policy were grim, problems intractable. Better tomorrows were a melancholy dream. The tenure of public office holders was likely to be marked by a stringent shortage of results for the electorate. Politicians had to sell something other than accomplishment.
    One politician in my friend's home state cruised regularly to election and re-election. In political season, when he went out on the stump, he stationed henchmen in the audiences of his speeches. Early in his delivery, on cue, they would begin shouting, "Tell us about the niggers.  Tell us about the niggers."  With gusto he did, thus evading forthright treatment of his constituents' dismal lot and his own meager record. He was the people's champion against scapegoats of his own expedient choosing.
    I recalled this story of political hate-mongering when I read that presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul will appear in a new anti-gay film. It is being called -- without discernible irony -- a documentary. It portrays the advancement of gay marriage as a threat to the Christian faith. "If homosexual activists get everything they want, it will be nothing less than the criminalization of Christianity," one figure argues in the film.
    The looming presidential season has already offered other excursions into the twilight zone. Senator Paul is a regular tour leader. Just recently, within the space of a week, he took opposite positions on the issue of childhood vaccination. He continues to lie about his education credentials, despite having been caught in it years ago.  He is a human gaffe-fest. As the son of perennial gadfly Ron Paul, he poses a question for science: Could crackpot bumbling be hereditary?
    Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has taken a colorful show on the road. With choreographed outbursts of faux spontaneity, he touts poor self control as a leadership skill. And lurking in the wings of the political stage are more than  a dozen dreamers, has-beens, opportunists and oddballs who are likelier to be canonized than elected to the White House. Their declarations of presidential aspiration suggest that some have noted the Sarah Palin model. Political celebrity can pay well.  No electoral success required.
    Huckabee may be one of the mercenary group. The ordained minister has diligently shaped himself into a brand, in the idiom of today's marketeers. As a candidate, television and radio personality, speaker-for-hire and author, he has established himself in an aw-shucks vein of right-wing commentary on social and political issues.  The title of his latest book conveys well enough the sizzle of product-Huckabee: "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy."
    He cannot think that cornpone formulations will resonate with a varied national audience. Hence my suspicion that he aims to prosper in a niche market. He might be welcome to do this  were his methods not base.  He is, of course,  far from being the first politician to demonize minorities.  But as an observant Christian, I find his Bible-thumping version of it especially noxious. Permitting gay Americans to formalize loving relationships threatens nothing and harms no one.
    Elsewhere in the presidential pose-a-thon: Wisconsin's bully-boy Gov. Scott Walker is shucking and jiving past the simplest questions. Florida's Jeb Bush is severing financial ties that might appear unseemly for a presidential aspirant -- and are, in fact, unseemly for a presidential aspirant. Hillary Clinton is assembling a major campaign machine while purporting to be undecided about campaigning. Ditto Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who salivates over power. Vice President Joe Biden is making a show of plucking petals off his inner decision-daisy. Wannabes of every sort are searching for a schtick.
    Our national air reeks of politics whose aim is less to lead the people than to herd them.The election is not quite two years away. I fear it will seem a lot longer.