When I heard the story of this teabag congressional candidate in Arizona mistaking a bus full of YMCA children with immigration bringing central American refugee children into their community, it reminded me of Lord of the Flies.
For those of you who don't know the story..In the 1954 Novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of British schoolboys are stranded on an island after their plane goes down in the ocean. Without adult supervision they must, out of necessity, form their own system of "government".
Very early on they break into two camps, one led by Ralph is the compassionate and democratic society, I will call Democrats. The other camp was led by an authoritarian named Jack who used fear and intimidation to keep the troops in line, I will call them Republicans.
The author, William Golding, would no doubt be aghast at my review of his work but just to illustrate what happened in Arizona and it's relationship to the novel I will trudge on for just a bit.
Jack had done a great job of convincing the group that there was a monster that lived in a cave in the jungle. Jack, being the hunter was therefore the best choice to lead both groups because he could protect the boys from the monster.
One night the boys were eating a wild boar that Jack had killed and provided to the group and Jack began to whip the boys into a frenzy about the danger of the monster in the jungle. The boys became wild and savage, brandishing weapons and howling at the moon and such.
Simon, a member of the group, had forgone the banquet and was in the jungle. When he emerged into the Bacchanal banquet he was immediately mistaken to be the monster and the boys set upon him and killed him with the sticks they had fashioned into spears.
Fear is a powerful drug and it can make ordinary people do extraordinary things. It can make otherwise decent and intelligent men mistake a busload of children from the YMCA as a monster that threatens a society. Then you add militia like Jack, with semi-automatic weapons into the mix and tragedy cannot be far behind.
Apologies to Mr. Golding, please read the book yourselves, it is widely available.
God save us from the teabags.