The Debate

Video is here.

I thought Hayhurst was shaky. He seemed nervous, and he repeated himself a lot. But I would probably be nervous too if I had to stand next to a man who had been personally attacking me on the area's most popular talk-radio station since late May.

Souder was arrogant and whiney. Souder was Souder. Near the end he started complaining about letters to local papers that are overly critical of him. Typical Republican, he can dish it out just fine, but he can't take it. I did learn something from him though. Apparently, Nancy Pelosi is running for the 3rd District House Seat, and not Dr. Hayhurst. What else would explain Souder mentioning her every ten minutes?

But Souder is a "conservative Christian" and a "Reagan Republican", so of course this means that he must have some sort of boogeyman ( or in this instance "boogeywoman") to scare the populace with. I trace this need back to the Puritanical roots of Souder's personal faith. The Puritans were a witchcraft culture, and like them Souder looks for "evil" in so many places including his fellow citizens who disagree with him.

Yeah, I've been waiting all day to use that one.

Back to Dr. Hayhurst.

I like his attempt to connect an effective health-care system with his personal faith, and the morality he . I'm not sure he succeeded, but his effort is commendable. I also appreciated his comments regarding this idea that government can be a force of good, and not just a "necessary evil" as the Reagan Republicans that have taken over Congress like to categorize it as. I do believe that the United States is truly a people's government, and when citizens are active then it works effectively. We have seen a period of declining public participation, and I think the result of this period is the election of men like Mark Souder. Souder plays to the GOP base, because he knows they will vote.