Digital Analogue

Alan Keyes is a

I'm not sure what to call him; no name I can think of really seems adequate. Much has been made of his "carpetbagger" comment with reference to Hillary Clinton; it demonstrates an inconsistency of thought, but I don't hold his Maryland residency against him. He's a poor choice to represent Illinois, not because he doesn't live here, but because he's way out on the right-wing fringe, even allowing for the rightward movement of the Republican Party in the last couple decades.

Recently he suggested that descendants of slaves should receive reparations from the US government. (He's already played the blacker-than-thou card at Obama, pointing out that Obama's father was African, not African-American, so I can only assume his reparations scheme involves some complicated red tape to only compensate the real descendants of slaves.) His "thoroughly conservative, thoroughly consistent Republican" scheme involves making the reparations through tax breaks. And you know what? He's right, it is conservative and Republican---it keeps the money in the hands of the rich. Nobody else seems to have pointed this out, but if the reparations are in the form of tax breaks, the lion's share will go to those who have already climbed (or been helped) out of poverty into the middle class. Exactly those folks who least need it.

He's claimed that the 9/11 attacks were a sign from God that we should stop committing abortions. Lest this seem like it totally comes from left field (you think?), he claims that both terrorism and abortion show a "disregard for the claims of innocent human life", so when we fight terrorism we should notice this inconsistency and, presumably, ban abortion or something. It's not clear whether Keyes regards the fundamentalist Muslim terrorists of the 9/11 attacks to be actually sent by God, or what---he's avoided answering that question!

I do have to say, though, that when he does choose to answer questions he is fairly articulate. I'm looking forward to seeing Obama and Keyes debate; hopefully they will be able to keep them contentful. We'll see.

"Wiggling is almost always the correct solution to hardware problems." --Zach Miller