Committing Patrick-cide

Having grown up in western NC, it alternately enrages and depresses me to see my hometown represented by a complete dipstick like The Odious Patrick McHenry.  April Fool's jokes aside, today I've almost developed a third emotion towards this individual, and that's pity.

Why pity?  Because the man feels the need to take to The Hill today to dispel the irresponsible rhetoric his own party has laid out on that prickly tool of government invasion, the dreaded Census.

Few things make will make Nancy Pelosi happier than large numbers of conservatives failing to respond to the census. If we do not respond, we will not be counted and if we are not counted, then we effectively will not exist. That would reduce conservatives’ power in elections, allow Democrats to draw more favorable congressional boundaries and help put more tax-hiking politicians in office.

Boycotting the census also offends me as an American patriot. Our society spends too much time talking about what government owes us; and not enough on the duties of citizenship and the hard work required to keep our freedom. Filling out the census is one of the few things our Constitution specifically asks of U.S. citizens and it is our duty as Americans to take that responsibility seriously.

Anyone who tells you that this year’s census is unconstitutional and that you are not required to fill out the form completely is flat out wrong. They argue that because this year’s census asks for more than a simple count of how many people live in your home, it is unconstitutional and therefore should not be completely filled out. That argument doesn’t stand up to either history or the Constitution’s text.

He's right, for once.  (Stopped grandfather clock being right twice a day and what not.)  But the truly pathetic part is that McHenry lacks the courage, the will, or the intelligence to ask "Hey, why DO conservatives dislike the Census so much?  Why do they not like the federal government?"

The answer to that is the right-wing propaganda that any government not led by Republicans is inherently evil and corrupt, and then turning around and proving any government actually led by Republicans is inherently evil and corrupt.

The fact that McHenry lack the simple self-awareness to see who to blame for this mess (hint: it's not Obama telling people not to fill out the Census) probably explains why he's drawn not one, but two teabagger primary challengers who don't think McHenry is conservative enough, and here, conservative enough means he didn't stop Obama from passing legislation.

But McHenry's walking down a dangerous road here.  If he starts examining too closely where this notion that conservatives should reject the Census came from, he's going to find himself Hoffmanned right out of NC-10's GOP primary in June.  Unemployment is bad back home, well above the national average, and not everyone thinks it's Obama's fault.  In this case, the bum to be thrown out is one Patrick McHenry.

The real problem of course is that Patrick McHenry belongs to a Republican party where many of the rank and file believe filling out the Census will steal their souls and give them to Obama, and all McHenry can do is get on his little soapbox and shout into the whirlwind he is currently in the process of reaping.

Like I said, I almost...almost...feel pity here, if it weren't for the fact that McHenry will most likely be replaced with someone far worse come November.  Then again, the winner may be so crazy, a Democrat could actually win here.

Maybe.