Fear-Mongering
In Tarrant Ads

I don't know why color TV doesn't register red for Rich Tarrant's face as he utters his tagline to ads distorting the record of Bernie Sanders: "I'm Rich Tarrant and I approved this message." But on second thought, Tarrant's true colors are showing through...

In the case of Bernie Sanders' so-called "vote against Amber Alert," the program was attached to a larger bill that Sanders had the civic foresight to recognize as violating the U.S. Constitution. (A conservative Supreme Court overturned the new law before it was much out of the starting gate.)

No matter how vast the majority of Congressmen bamboozled into voting for it, Sanders' vote against a Constitutionally indefensible bill is—especially in this day and age—a badge of courage, not of shame.

As Tarrant's attack ads illustrate, what passes for leadership in the Republican Party these days is counting on its proven ability to manipulate the baser fears of the American public: fears of child molesters, of terrorists, of immigrants—fill in the blank with your favorite boogeyman.

Republican leaders cynically invoke the national trauma of 9/11 every time they want to "re-interpret" (read subvert) the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and the Holy Bible. Letting the ideologies of the Bush regime define America's religion and values is like letting radical imams define Islam.

In the Sanders-Tarrant Senate race, we have, for once, a clear choice between candidates for public office. Time now for all good Vermonters to come to the aid of their country, by voting with their brains and listening to the better angels of their nature.

Peggy Whiteneck

East Randolph