This is a letter to the editor I published at the Daily Advance. Posted here for posterity, since they have no online archive:
Attempt to enact broad legislation to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country? Check. Attempt to amend the Constitution to ban flag desecration? Check. Attempt to amend the Constitution to ban homosexual marriages? Check. It has certainly been a busy legislative season for our Republican-controlled government!
Now, as America comes up on November elections, they would like to remind us that they are the National Security Party. Americans can expect much showboating in the House and Senate as Republicans vote to maintain the status quo in Iraq, where the situation continues to deteriorate into impending civil war, affirm their faith in Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who has poorly served our undersupplied and overstretched troops, and assert that they have everything under control as Iran openly mocks us, developing nuclear weapons and supplying terrorist organizations overseas.
Memories are short, so we should not forget that for the last six months Republicans have been preoccupied with what they consider the true threats to our republic: Day laborers hanging out in front of Home Depot, American flag bumper stickers on SUVs, and the possibility that two men might be staring longingly into one another’s eyes while a violin plays somewhere in the background.
Personally, I am more concerned about the violin the Republicans are playing while Rome is burning; I believe the tune is called, “Election Year Politics.”