Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Romney's Bizarre Far Right Campaign Mailers


With independents seemingly fleeing his sinking ship in Virginia one would think that the Romney/Ryan campaign would be trying to look less extreme in the hope that they could convince some voters to return.  Such seems not to be the case.  One Romney Mailer being used in Virginia appears aimed at stoking the culture wars.  Another focuses on a non-existent epidemic of Lyme Disease - apparently to appease the ultra-far right and in my view batshit crazy Mike Farris, a Kool-Aid drinker if there ever was one.  First this description of the culture war mailer - which needless to say attacks LGBT Virginians - via Blue Virginia:

A Virginia Democratic friend of mine got this in the mail today from the Romney campaign. Why they sent it to him, I have no idea, but I'm glad they did, as it gave me a glimpse into Romney's mail campaign for Virginia. Apparently, the strategy is go for the all-out culture war, ranting about "religious liberty" supposedly being "under attack" (reality check: it isn't!); railing against the concept of allowing those EVIL GLBT people - wait for it (gasp!) adopt children; arguing that you should vote for Romney if you believe in "Marriage. Family. Life" (as opposed to Democrats, who of course believe in...what, divorce and death? whatever). Wonderful, huh? 

Even more bizarre is the mailer targeting Northern Virginia that pushes an agenda of the reality untethered Mike Farris (shown below with Romney).  Here are highlights from Think Progress:

The Romney campaign is sending out a flyer in Northern Virginia pledging to fight Lyme Disease, which is describes as a “massive epidemic threatening Virginia.”  The Washington Post notes that “According to the CDC there are less than 1,000 reported cases of Lyme disease in Virginia a year — in a state of eight million people.”

It’s fairly difficult to contract Lyme disease because “an infected tick must be attached to the skin for at least 36 hours to transmit Lyme bacteria.” For those who are affected, there is a straight-forward and effective treatments for the disease — a course of antibiotics for 2 to 4 weeks.

So what’s the point of this Romney mailer?  A highly influential social conservative in Virginia, Michael Farris, believes that people can contract “chronic Lyme disease” that must be treated with long-term antibiotics. The Center for Disease Control says there is no such thing as “chronic Lyme disease” and “long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease has been associated with serious complications.”

The Romney flier advocates providing “local physicians with protection from lawsuits to ensure they can treat the disease with the aggressive antibiotics that are required.” Farris’ wife receives treatment from “Dr. Joseph Jemsek, who moved his practice to Washington, D.C., after losing his medical license in North Carolina for treating patients with long-term antibiotics.” 

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