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Graeme Frost, or: how the GOP wingnuts fell into a trap

It isn’t often that one gets to see an example of hatred that is so blinding that spouters of political bile jump into a trap with eyes wide open. Yet that is the case with the right-wing extremists who have thrown themselves like a pack of howling wolves onto Graeme Frost and his family. Like hideous vampires mad for blood who have found a new born baby in its crib, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh and the other Undead are feasting on middle-class flesh while their hideous laughter and screaming fills the humid air. But all this time they don’t realise that many, many people who identify with the Frosts are learning a valuable lesson: the right-wing extremists of the GOP hate white, middle-class American familes.

Graeme Frost, as a short reminder, is the 12-year-old son of the Frost family, a quite average, suburbian middle-class American family. Dad has his own job and isn’t doing bad (considering the size of the family), mom is putting all her energy into the family, and the kids all go to school. So far, no problem. But the Frost family allowed the Democratic Party to use Graeme Frost in the party’s denunciation of president’s Bush veto of State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation. The Democrats in Congress wanted the SCHIP scheme expanded to allow more children to be covered by it, but president Bush stood ground on principle, arguing that by expanding it the way the Democrats wanted, the states’ program would become a “federal” program.

Instead of putting a senator or a governor up for the task to rebut the president’s move during the weekly Democratic rebuttal by radio, the Democrats set Graeme Frost front and center, claiming that the boy would have been dead had it not been for SCHIP. The boy has had a life-threatening disease and survived, making Graeme Frost a Democratic poster boy for the Democrats.

True to fashion, the messager was attacked, and not the message itself. The werewolves threw themselves on Frost immediately, yelping that the Frost family was making more than enough money to pay for Graeme’s medical bills themselves. They live in a $260,000 home in Baltimore, Malkin and Limbaugh and the others of Dracula’s Castle pointed out, and daddy Frost even has three cars. To the vampires, this is is proof that the Frosts — and thus many American middle-class families — don’t need the SCHIP money. And even if they did, surely the Frosts could have made do with just one car, selling the two others?

The trap set out for the Undead had big neon signs that were flashing “TRAP!”, but to no avail – the vampires fell right in and are now in fact aiding the Democrats. Because ever since Graeme Frost’s appearance before the Democratic microphone, Malkin and Limbauhg and their ilk have been trashing the average, white, American middle-class family. What’s more, they have been after a family of which the husband and father is self-employed. Hmmm – white, middle-class, self-employed, hard working, some debt there, more than 2 kids — wait a minute! That’s one of the GOP’s most beloved demographics in elections! So far, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has jumped on the matter, putting up a vigorous defense for Frost while Giuliani and Romney’s campaigns seem to have seen the neon signs – and are thus far keeping a distance.

Hee-hee. What a laugh. Not only have the Democrats got most Republicans with a brain cornered because they know that going after a 12-year-old does not look good, the right-wing extremists are — in the name of their beloved GOP — bashing away at your average, middle-class, voting white family. If I were the DNC’s national campaign strategist, I’d put the name ‘Graeme Frost’ right up where with Iraq, social security and health care for the coming presidential election. The Vampires are eager enough to help out the Democratic campaign, it seems, so why not?

So, what’s next. Ummm, how about… An 11-year-old girl called Juanita from Nevada? Or – no, Arizona? Wait wait, even better – Florida!