As I have said many times, today’s Republican Party has basically descended from its former greatness – think Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ike, etc. – into John Birch Society lunacy. From climate science denial (that one alone should disqualify this party from holding ANY power at all) to “creation science” to birtherism to anti-Muslim bigotry to supply-side “economics” to neoconservative foreign policy beliefs to all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories (the latest, that dozens of different polling companies, including Faux “News,” are all skewing their numbers to show Obama in the lead), this party is completely off the deep end. Now, we have yet another example, this time close to home.
A highly influential social conservative in Virginia, Michael Farris, believes that people can contract “chronic Lyme disease” that must be treated with long-term antibiotics. The Center for Disease Control says there is no such thing as “chronic Lyme disease” and “long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease has been associated with serious complications.
You can read about these complications in this article from “Clinical Infectious Diseases,” the official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, called “Death from Inappropriate Therapy for Lyme Disease.
Farris “claims that his wife is a chronic Lyme sufferer as are all his seven children.
Farris, who has no medical training, was invited to speak with Romney on his campaign bus a couple of weeks ago. Farris said that he and Romney “talked about Lyme disease. It was cordial and encouraging.” Here’s a photo of the meeting from Romney’s Facebook page:
The Romney flier advocates providing “local physicians with protection from lawsuits to ensure they can treat the disease with the aggressive antibiotics that are required.” Farris’ wife receives treatment from “Dr. Joseph Jemsek, who moved his practice to Washington, D.C., after losing his medical license in North Carolina for treating patients with long-term antibiotics.”
Yes, this is completely anti-scientific, wacked-out stuff, promoted by a guy who makes Ken Kookinelli look like a moderate. So, you’d think that a presidential nominee for a major U.S. political party wouldn’t touch this guy with a 10,000-foot pole, right? WRONG! The Romney campaign’s all over this one, lovin’ itself some crazy! Again, though, this isn’t surprising coming from the modern-day John Birch Society, masquerading as the “Republican Party.” Ugh.
h/t to Loudoun Insider of the Too Conservative blog, who links to The Weekly Standard, which seems…let’s just say skeptical…about this “issue.”
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