Subverting a democracy already pushed and pulled into something stranger than a Doctor Dolittle Push-Me–Pull-You, more tenuous than Fred MacMurray’s “Flubber,” and more falsehoods-filled than Pinocchio, is just too much to stand for. Progressives have to be the adults in the room.

Markos Moulitsas and the good folks at Daily Kos, a very popular progressive blog enterprise, want you to vote for Rick Santorum. Really. In a poorly thought out attempt to meddle with the Republican Presidential campaign keeping voters undecided for as long as possible, Kos’ “Operation Hilarity,” is anything but — but demonstrates that Markos Moulitsas’ Daily Kos has moved into a dangerous venue: ignoring what’s really important, not honoring, but devaluing the foundations of our democracy, and placing politics above all else. Some call the opposite of those acts statesmanship.

In a post titled, “Announcing Operation Hilarity: Let’s keep the GOP clown show going!,” Markos Moulitsas expains:

It’s time for us to take an active role in the GOP nomination process. That’s right, it’s time for those of us who live in open primary and caucus states—Michigan,North Dakota, Vermont and Tennessee in the next three weeks—to head out and cast a vote for Rick Santorum.

Why would we do such a crazy thing? Lots of great reasons!

Republican turnout has sucked, and appears to be getting worse by the contest. Unlike the 2008 Democratic primaries, which helped President Barack Obama and the Democrats to build a national organization, the GOP is an organizational disaster, with waning voter interest. That means that it takes fewer votes to have an impact than if Republican turnout was maxed out.

Several of the contests have produced razor-thin margins of victory. Rick Santorum won Iowa by 34 votes, Mitt Romney “won” Maine by 194 votes. It won’t take many of us to swing contests the way we want them to swing.

The longer this GOP primary drags on, the better the numbers for Team Blue. Not only is President Barack Obama rising in comparison to the clowns in the GOP field, but GOP intensity is down—which would have repercussions all the way down the ballot.

The longer this thing drags out, the more unpopular the Republican presidential pretenders become. Just look at Mitt Romney’s trajectory, which followed Herman Cain’s trajectory, and Newt Gingrich’s trajectory, and Michelle Bachmann’s trajectory, and so on.

Rick Santorum will inevitably follow the same path once he gets properly vetted. Mitt Romney has been unable to stem the bleeding despite his tens of millions. Just imagine Santorum, with the far more radical record and a continued inability to raise real money.

I want to be clear: I have great respect for Markos Moulitsas and Daily Kos. I confess I don’t read it as often as I’d like to, but I have great respect for them.

And there is no doubt that the 2012 Republican presidential campaign season has been an offense to our democracy, an insult to the intelligence of every man, woman, and child in America, and a total embarrassment.

But this is why we cannot get down in the mud and stupidity with them. Someone has to be the adult in the room. Progressives are better at it to begin with.

Besides, allowing American politics’ Homophobe-In-Chief to appear more popular than he is is offensive. We need to push back on Santorum, not propel him into perceived popularity. Santorum’s 13th century mindset needs to be exposed, not supported. His hatred of gays, women, government, and his obsessive theocratic delusions must not be given a louder voice.

Fortunately, even writers and contributors on the Kos website are not in agreement with this misguided mission. Posts like, “So now we’re subverting democracy? Count me out of Operation Hilarity,” along with the comments section of Kos’ post, are evidence of overwhelming disagreement with this idea.

And Scott Wooledge, a Daily Kos front page writer and prominent LGBT activist whose work occasionally appears in these pages, commented over at Kos:

False inflation will still result in more mainstream fawning over him.

My friend Pam Spaulding said:

It’s the whole “good intentions” thing, completely tone-deaf to the grotesque thought of any progressive casting a vote for a man who is receiving too much unquestioned attention by the mainstream media. We don’t need to help him.This is an ill-advised idea at humor — to have progressives vote for Santorum. Not one vote needs to be cast for this professional homophobe.  His campaign to control the wombs and bedrooms of Americans needs to be shamed, and exposed. Enough people vote for the wrong reasons out of ignorance, and certainly way too many are apathetic about voting at all. More energy needs to be put toward defeating candidates on their own merits.

I am not a weenie.

But a lot of vulnerable kids are placed in danger by Santorum and Bachmann and their ilk. Last week, even Howard Stern of all people was discussing the link between these homophobes and the bullying and suicides of teens. He called Santorum and Bachamann the “two worst people in the planet.”

Rather than voted for, Stern says Santorum and Bachmann should be “drummed out of the country,” “spat upon,” and “ignored, shunned, and treated as a lunatics.”

Sorry, I think this is badly conceived and a really bad idea. If Santorum is still viable in May, that will all but assure the NC anti-gay Constitutional amendment is approved.

 

Rachel Maddow unfortunately covered “Operation Hilarity” last night, putting it in context with previous similar GOP acts. But, as I said, someone has to be the adult in the room.

Subverting a democracy already pushed and pulled into something stranger than a Doctor Dolittle Push-Me–Pull-You, more tenuous than Fred MacMurray’s “Flubber,” and more falsehoods-filled than Pinocchio, is just too much to stand for. Someone has to be the adult in the room. Let it be Progressives.