Is that Rod Serling I See?

It’s amazing to me what kinds of people are drawn to Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry.

By “people,” I mean “immature, obnoxious, shallow little twits.”

A Facebook friend posted about Perry’s choosing to hunt at a lodge that featured a giant rock adorned with the racist word “Niggerhead” at its entrance – a rock that was painted over later rather than sooner, apparently – and almost immediately drew arrogant, insulting, unhelpful, meandering posts from an intellectually-retarded right wing clown who referenced Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (Obama’s former pastor in Chicago), Barney Frank, Microsoft, Zell Miller (the Democratic politician from Georgia who backed Dubya and currently co-chairs the Gingrich for President campaign), September 11, and even the decades-old savings and loan scandal in one of the most transparent attempts to distract people from the issue at hand that I’ve ever seen.

He also asserted that Amanda Knox is “bangable” and poked fun at Democrats for counting more homely women among their ranks than Republicans can claim. It was at this point that I realized there would be no changing of his stunted mind and disengaged from the conversation.

Few thinking people would debate whether “Niggerhead” is an offensive word or has any place in anyone’s vocabulary in 2011. It’s not earth-shattering that Governor Perry has tendencies that are insensitive at best and racist at worst, and I’m not interested in participating in the investigation into exactly when the rock was painted, when the Perry family realized it should be painted, exactly when Perry’s name appeared on the lease, etc. None of this will result in more jobs for the unemployed, more food for the hungry, an end to our military escapades in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, or public policies that reduce the ability of the rich white men who control Congress to continue to mount class warfare against this country’s Middle Class.

What’s sobering and worthy of attention is the fact that Perry is applauded for his missteps, lauded for the number of prisoners his state has executed, cheered by dumbshits in Facebook for not being Michael Moore or Bill Clinton. (One of my favorite bloggers wrote that Perry’s approval rating will probably go up ten points among his Tea Party supporters as a result of the “Niggerhead” debacle.) It’s the attempts to rewrite history, the not-even-covert racism, the lynch mob mentality, the “let’s throw whatever we can at the wall and see what sticks” style of communicating by Perry supporters that are troubling.

Perry and his ilk are appealing to the lowest common denominator – consciously pandering to them, in fact – and there are truckloads of ‘em out there. I’m not concerned that Perry allowed a bad word to remain on a rock for longer than he should have at a cabin he frequented; I’m concerned that this makes him more electable in our current political climate, not less.

I don’t see this changing anytime soon, and I fear for my children. I fear for my country. I fear the future. I’m living in the Twilight Zone.