The Republicans Sad State of Affairs

Let me say this first, my deepest heartfelt sympathies go out to the surviving family members of Albert Peterson and to his wife's family for the loss of their loved ones. It truly is a tragedy that could've been avoided, but the tell-tale signs were there and no one acted upon them.

While I was listening to the Tom Joyner Morning Show on Tuesday morning when I heard something that sounded so outlandish that I thought it had to be a joke, but as it turns out what I heard was something that actually happened. The incident in question happened in late September, when a man, Albert Peterson, 57 shot and killed his wife Kathleen, 52 and two teenage sons Christopher, 16 & Matthew 13, before turning the gun on himself. It has been said that he did it over concerns about the upcoming November presidential election.

To say that it was shameful of how the Republicans conducted their deceitful and distorted campaign against President Obama, would be a gross understatement. They painted such a bleek, demonstrative and demonizing picture of an Obama second term, that it tried to play upon the worst fears of even the most normally rational people. But for someone of a less than perfect mental acuity, it led to the tragic loss of life for four people. Kathleen, who was in her prime even at 52 years of age and two teenage boys Christopher & Matthew who still had their whole lives ahead of them. In some misguided way in Albert's mind he was doing them a favor, by sparing them from living through an Obama second term.

Although the Albert Peterson case was and is an isolated incident, the RNC, the Romney / Ryan campaign and their super P.A.C.'s should bear a proportionate amount of the blame for this tragic event. It was, after all is said and done, their willful dissemination of blatant lies and falsehoods that feed the personal demons tormenting Albert Peterson. Even though they didn't personally pull the trigger on Kathleen, Christopher or Matthew, it's a shame that they can in a sense get away with a triple homicide without any culpability.

Hypothetically speaking had this been a singular person or a smaller group of people involved in a similar situation, there could be serious potential criminal charges pending. Right off the top of my head, conspiracy to commit murder, three count of manslaughter in the second degree w/ depraved indifference, three counts of criminally negligent homicide or reckless endangerment comes to mind. Maybe at the lessor end of the scale four counts of accessory after the fact. Granted such a case would be highly circumstantial but nonetheless provable beyond a reasonable doubt. My point being that such blatant lies and falsehoods were highly inflammatory to someone of questionable mental state.

Returning to the wave of unflattering condemnation of the voting public by some members of the GOP is flat out distasteful. The Romney statement that said the Obama campaign gave gifts to the public for their votes, is without a doubt a sign of a sore loser lashing out because things didn't go the way he expected. What did he think, that average Americans were going to vote against what's in their own best interests or that we forgot about the now infamous 47% comment. Or my personal new favorite, binders full of women.

The Republican (Tea) Party's far right wing conservatives should use this time between the election and inauguration to reflect upon why they lost their bid for the White House, didn't gain control of the Senate and lost a few seats within the House of Representatives to the Democrats. What's really pathetic is that some republican business owners are firing and/or laying off workers because President Obama won. Need they be reminded that the brunt of their dreaded Obamacare (a.k.a. Affordable Care Act) is basically a revised version of the one Romney put into play while he was Governor of Massachusetts.

Also they should reflect on how their lies hit the home of Albert & Kathleen Peterson and their two teenage sons. I know it sounds silly to people of sane mind sets that a person would even consider wiping out his entire immediate family over who might win a damned Presidential Election. But the sad thing is, the debilitating depression that drove Mr. Peterson over the edge is or at least should be considered as a serious mental illness. And the campaign the Romney campaign ran was like adding a lit match to something soaked in gasoline, extremely dangerous as well as totally counter-productive.