The Tea Party Virus

The Morning After the Rain

Up early, the fire flickers in the corner—just enough to puff some warmth into the room. Outside, the sun is crawling above the horizon, but you can tell the weather has turned. Last night hit 39 degrees. The rain’s gone now, leaving the ground soaked and the air smelling clean.

Saturday’s shaping up to be a big one—the protest against the Trump dictatorship. With luck, more than four hundred people will show up to remind the wannabe king that democracy still breathes in Arizona.

Meanwhile, here in our little corner of the republic, the pool bond vote marches on. Just down the street sits a woman living in a home worth close to a million bucks, but she’s caught the Tea Party virus and voted against it. Six lousy dollars a month was just too much for her—never mind the kids who’ve gone five summers without a real pool. Let them swim in potholes, she says, while polishing her SUV.

The Tea Party has drenched the town in misinformation about the bond. Their local champions—the Three Stooges of the Town Council, Otto, Bell, and Ferris—have done their part to rile up the gullible and stall progress.

So here we are. The ballots will soon tell us what kind of town we really live in. Is Payson drowning in idiocy, or will enough people rise above the swamp to vote for the future? This election will say a lot about whether reason still lives in Rim Country—or if the Hoopleheads have won.

Fleecing the Flock is today's comment over at the National Association for the Advancement of Humanity blog. https://naftaoh.blogspot.com/