The (Hopeful) Last Of The Toddwatch Fallout

     I really hoped I was done with this.

     You, no doubt, really hoped I was done with this too.

     But sadly, it's never that damned easy.

     I've expended more time, energy and vocabulary in covering the various misdeeds of now ex-State Representative Todd Courser over the last year than any sane person should when they aren't drawing a paycheck to do so. I've been banned twice from his public Facebook page in the midst of trying to get answers out of him for his actions, because who needs to listen to their constituents anyway? I've taken part in protests, talked to every media outlet that would have me, and found time to play on a protest song and record the occasional dumb comedy bit.  So when he finally resigned in the middle of the night on Friday, it seemed that Toddwatch 2015 had finally come to an end and I could go back to just hating Detroit sports like I normally do.

     But then this happened. Stephen Young, chairman of the Allegan County Tea Party, took to his group's Facebook page and posted a rant about the whole situation, and it's more unhinged than you could possibly imagine.

     "On 9/11 2015, the terrorist network in Lansing Michigan (sometimes called the Republican Party leadership) has taken down the Twin Towers. It took more than a few box cutters to destroy the foundation, but included well placed explosives in a true conspiracy to cover the truth. Justice has not been served in this matter, but destroyed."

     You read that right. He just compared the expulsion of two self-righteous hypocrites who horribly abused their positions of public trust, to the worst terrorist attack ever committed on American soil.

     I think I just died a little inside. Courser and Gamrat are "Twin Towers?" Of what; corruption, deception, and hypocrisy? Has the Allegan County Tea Party no decency? No shame? No sense of basic human respect? These people didn't "stand against the terror of the Republican Party"; they were the biggest example of it! They didn't stand for anything other than screwing each other, and occasionally taking rights from gays if they had any time left over. And to compare them to the men and women who died on 9/11 is beyond sickening.

     It only gets worse in the comments section: "Only a few thousand died on 9/11/01. In comparison, the Republican leadership in this state is far worse than a few radical religionists from the Middle East."

     "Only a few thousand died." But let's continue to harp on Benghazi. Makes sense. I'm sorry, but to compare the men and women who perished that day, not to mention the firefighters and rescue workers who risked their lives to save them, to scum of the earth like Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat, dishonors them in a way I never thought an American capable of doing. Young goes on to explain himself with some tortured logic about Republicans paying for "killing children," despite the fact that Planned Parenthood receives no government funding for abortion, and no "children" have been killed; those aborted fetuses aren't living human beings. But none of it has a damn thing to do with Courser and Gamrat, other than their desire to force women to carry every embryo to term regardless of the woman's well being, evidently. And none of it deserves the comparison to lives lost at the hands of terrorists.

     As you might imagine, Young has caught more than a little flack for his comments; of the 220 on that original post, all but one were in opposition to his screed. And his response? A post bragging about how many people saw his post, of course! Because if you're going to be a terrible human being, why not double down on it? Only somebody as deranged as this man would go on Facebook and brag about how many people think he's absolutely reprehensible. Even Courser's most vocal defenders have gone all but silent in Lapeer, but in Allegan County, they've just gotten louder and crazier. If ever one needed proof that these people simply do not care about human life once it exits the womb, look no further than Stephen Young's horrific and bizarre rant. One would hope this would make voters think twice before electing another tea-party approved candidate.

     On a semi-related note, I have a bone to pick with the local Democratic party. As of today, we have four Republicans running for Courser's vacant seat, five once Jan Peabody finally announces her candidacy, and a socially liberal centrist independent, but not a single Democrat has announced a run. And I've been piled on by the party folks around here for calling them out on this. The deadline is in three days, and... crickets.  This party seems to want to shoot themselves in the foot whenever possible; the state rep's seat is as winnable as it has ever been for them, yet they had nearly zero street presence at Lapeer Days this year, haven't had a single candidate get out in public and go on the attack, and basically sat on their hands while several Republicans threw their hats into the ring and got a head start on them. But I've been told by people involved with the Lapeer Democrats that I'm "out of line" for pointing this out, and that this is my fault because I'm not out there campaigning for... nobody. Of course, these are the same people who got pissed that somebody dared challenge their hand-picked candidate in the primary last year, so take that how you will.

     Unfortunately for them, there's also a large base of people in the county that are all too willing to let a certified nutjob represent them as long as he's not a Democrat. The amount of non-voters and people who just skipped over that section of the ballot is living proof of that. Good luck getting a win as a liberal when you have so many voters that will be damned if they ever vote for somebody who won't promise to never raise their taxes, much less someone who tells them that taxes aren't high enough, as Margaret DeLuca told the County Press last year in regards to roads and the gas tax. But in Lapeer, it's an uphill battle trying to get people to understand that while what we're sending in taxes to Lansing could be spent a lot more efficiently than it is, money isn't going to fall from the sky to cover the rest. And winning over hearts and minds is all the more difficult when you're letting your opponents do all the talking and control the narrative entirely.

     Even now, it seems nobody's exactly learned anything from this. The consensus around here seems to be, "we need to find a more moderate Republican to run so this doesn't happen again!" But you've got five candidates running so far, meaning you might have a situation once again where the vote is split enough to let another fringe guy like Courser take the nomination. What then? Do you let this happen again rather than even consider a Democrat or, god forbid, an independent?

     For too many, the answer to that appears to be a resounding "yes."

     And that puts us right back where we started.