RALEIGH -— Republicans are werewolves.
It’s suitable metaphor for the coming Halloween celebration, I suppose, but not exactly an uplifting bit of political rhetoric as we approach the culmination of an emotional and controversial electoral cycle.
Though I usually don’t put enough stock in a Drudge Report posting to base a column around it, this spectacular find appears to be a genuine document, a manual of sorts for activists gearing up for Election Day on behalf of the Democratic National Committee. Naturally, if the blogosphere debunks the story as a fake, I’ll stand corrected.
The gist of the story here is that the DNC appears to have urged its footsoldiers to allege Republican efforts at voter intimidation and electoral funny business before any evidence of such perfidy materializes. “If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a ‘pre-emptive strike,'” the manual states.
Asked to defend this directive — which if followed would poison the political process, throw chaos into a presidential election, and jam up the courts with frivolity — a DNC official reportedly said that “we all know the Republicans are going to try to steal the election by scaring people and confusing people.”
In other words, it is impossible for Democrats to cry wolf when it comes to electoral manipulation. Republicans may look human enough, but they are really just lycanthropes waiting to bear their fangs and swallow unsuspecting Democratic voter/heroes. You can trust ’em. They are out to get you.
Have you ever heard of anything so obnoxious? So pathetic? I can’t believe that this is what Democratic politics has sunk to. Real leaders of the party will step forward and condemn this grotesque attempt at political manipulation. Real believers in stated Democratic principles will disregard the directive.
And Republicans, you’d best keep a sharp eye out. Everyone knows that Democratic activists are just a bunch of mindless zombies out to feed on your brains.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.