The Sound of Madness

Madness. According to The American Heritage Dictionary the definition of the word madness is

1. The quality or condition of being insane.
2. Great folly.
3. Fury; rage.
4. Enthusiasm; excitement.

And according to the Collins English Dictionary the definition is:

1. Insanity; lunacy.
2. Extreme anger, excitement, or foolishness.
3. A nontechnical word for rabies.

Madness is a disorder that can afflict any individual without regard to their background, without regard to their education. Madness discriminates against no one. Even our elected officials can suffer from madness as has been clearly demonstrated by a certain Linn County Supervisor. On January 7^th Republican Brent Oleson clearly lost his mind. For on this day Oleson not only launches into a tirade, he blatantly lies in an attempt to discredit a fellow Republican.

As most of you are no doubt aware State Representative Kent Sorenson publically endorsed Bob Vander Plaats for Governor. In the process of endorsing Vander Plaats Sorenson very publically vowed that he would not support Terry Branstad should he win the nomination. The problem arose with Oleson when he posted his comments on his blog, The Marion Contrarian. In his comments Oleson stated that Sorenson would not support any of the Republican nominees other than Branstad. This was clearly not the case and at first I assumed that it was simply an honest mistake on his part. However after presenting evidence to the contrary I quickly came to the realization that the misrepresentation was intentional. As interacted with Oleson it became quite clear the man was mad.

Then on January 18^th Oleson presented the Linn County Republican a draft of a resolution that would ask Gubernatorial candidates to place their intelligence on hold in order to receive the support of the county party apparatus. Astoundingly the members of the Linn County Republican Central Committee fell in line and approved the resolution. This resolution is dangerous in many ways, but most importantly it asks the other candidates to support their opponent even if they do not agree with their positions. This would have the unintended consequence of making liars out of some of our candidates.

Personally I could understand a litmus test at the local level if it asked the candidates to pledge to support the platform as set forth by base of the party at the caucuses and conventions. However that is not what these people want. Instead it seems that these people want to encourage the blind faith that having an R behind a candidate’s name is all that truly matters. It is extremely disconcerting the rhetoric coming from Linn County because it is truly the sound of madness.