This is pretty much the most disgusting recent American election I can think of, for the quality (or lack thereof) of candidates and for the outcome.
Tom Coburn crushed the right-wing mayor of Oklahoma City in the GOP primary with 65 percent of the vote in a three-way race, carrying 76 of 77 counties. He backed the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions, decried "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma public schools, and attacked gays as the biggest threat to the US.
Brad Carson- a member of the Cherokee Nation- was one of the most conservative Blue Dogs in the House. He backed the war in Iraq, the Bush tax cuts (
and favored making them permanent), ANWR drilling, suggested that the IRS could be abolished, and refused to endorse John Kerry. After the election, he wrote an article explaining that
for the vast majority of Oklahomans--and, I would suspect, voters in other red states--these transcendent cultural concerns are more important than universal health care or raising the minimum wage or preserving farm subsidies. Pace Thomas Frank, the voters aren't deluded or uneducated. They simply reject the notion that material concerns are more real than spiritual or cultural ones.Sheila Bilyeu was an independent candidate (and onetime candidate for the Green presidential nomination) who openly favored same-sex marriage and opposed the war in Iraq. She also sued the government, because they planted a tracking device in her skull.
in the end, of course, crazy Coburn demolished crazy Carson with 53 percent to 41 percent of the vote. 86,663 Oklahomans- 6 percent of voters- went with the lady with the bug in her head.
So, pick your poison. Who would you have voted for?
Poll
