I swear by the sun and its brilliance/And the moon when it follows the sun/ And the day when it shows it/ And the night when it draws a veil over it. ”“ From Surah XCI-The Sun, The Qur’an

Kenneth Mehlman came out last night. No, he’s not the kid down the street whose mom always has to know where he’s going and with whom. No, he’s not the kid always chosen last to be on the neighborhood pickup baseball team. And no, he’s not the geek who has invented the latest thing to rival Twitter. Kenneth Mehlman is the guy who was George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign manager and the same guy who became Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2006. He’s also the guy who, along with Karl Rove, developed the NeoCon strategy to attack homosexuality and gay marriage as sins against God and nature. So, like former Republican Senator Larry Craig from Idaho and the right-wing Reverend Ted Haggard, Kenneth Mehlman came out of the house, out of the closet, and into the limelight and announced that he is gay.

Personally, I do not give a damn about anyone’s sexuality. I’ve never been able to make the Republican leap-from-the-bridge that says that a married homosexual couple living next door threatens my manhood or endangers my marriage. Logic and intelligent thought do not work that way and neither does love. Sadly, the outright lies that Mehlman and Rove propagated when they were in power are still at work today, especially here in Maine. In 2008, Mainers voted against gender equality and voted for discrimination. That’s right, Mainers voted to discriminate and we have George W. Bush, Karl Rove, and Kenneth Mehlman to thank for the homophobia that runs rampant in America today.

In the past month Republican inspired homophobia has taken a back seat to Islamophobia. Not yet officially a word, this hating of all things Islamic has degenerated to the disparaging belief that all Muslims attacked the Twin Towers and, therefore, all Muslims want to see the United States destroyed. This, in turn, has generated an atmosphere where people should not be allowed to worship as they please and the specious call for repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment, the amendment that grants citizenship to all children born on America soil. Michael Enright, an Islamophobe, apparently slashed New York City cabbie Ahmed Sharif’s throat after Sharif affirmed, when asked by Enright, that he is a Muslim Sharif’s crimes, it seems, were being both a Muslim and honest; the former being the worst thing imaginable in a present-day, mosque debatable New York City.

The Mehlman-Rove-Republican formula for hate can vary; it’s essentially a fill-in-the-blanks formula for instilling and ruling by fear. During the Bush Years it was homosexuality: Gay and lesbian couples were going to convert and initiate children and innocent youths into cadres and armies of gay folk who would rise up and destroy democracy. Uh, that didn’t happen. That segued into Weapons of Mass Destruction which did not exist. After the 2008 election, Republicans ginned up the idea that led to the Birther Movement ”“ the insincere contention that Obama is an illegitimate president because he was born in Kenya, which he wasn’t. Obama was born in Hawaii; even the Opus Dei dominated United States Supreme Court has acknowledged that the Birthers have no cause. That Birther-thing devolved with the rise of the Tea Party to hating President Obama because, quite simply, he’s black. It is imperative to note and understand that ALL things Tea Party emanate from their fear of a black man in the presidency. That Obama’s been labeled “a racist, a socialist, a Nazi, a Muslim, and anti-American” are the direct results of Mehlman’s involvement in creating divisive, unsubstantiated issues that keep the ignorant Republican base energized.

Maine has two Republican Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who have yet to publicly denounce the Birthers, the Creationists, the homophobes, the Islamophobes, the racist pronouncements of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, the outright lies of Representative John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell, and the continued misogynistic positions of their own political party. Kenneth Mehlman has faced his own personal crisis and even though his legacy is one of hatred and distrust, his very public acknowledgment suggests hope and redemption. Maine needs Snowe and Collins to repudiate their political party’s despicable treatment of Muslims and the blatant ad hominem (literally, “to the man”) attacks on President Obama and concentrate on the issues. Maine deserves better as does the nation.

— Paul C. Trahan lives in Saco.