Maine GOP making us laugh

Don't assume the Northeast is any more immune to Republican batshittery than the Sun Belt is - at least within the party itself.

The phony populism of the far-right Tea Party movement has enveloped Maine's GOP. Maine Republicans have adopted a platform that could have been written by Sarah Palin on steroids. Indeed, it was written by Tea Party activists.

Some of the platform is fairly vague, but a few items truly stand out for their sheer lunacy. Regarding government policy towards TV and radio, the platform opposes "localism and diversity." It says that "localism and diversity" are affronts to free speech.

How??? Since when is a station carrying local programs instead of nationally syndicated material an assault on the First Amendment? It isn't.

If anything violates the spirit of free speech, it's Congress's 1996 bailout of nationally syndicated right-wing talkers. Concentration of media voices is antithetical to democracy.

The Maine GOP platform also demands eliminating the durable "motor voter" law, because it says that it's vote fraud. How??? Republicans actually want to make it harder for qualified voters to vote?

Perhaps the funniest part? Another plank in this platform reads: "Clarify that healthcare is not a right." Um, what? Health care is a right, geniuses.

This giggle-a-thon is the platform of a supposedly major party in one of the 50 states? Really??? This is the party that seriously thinks it can win back control of both houses of Congress 6 months from now?