There's another SNL alum throwing a hat in the ring, running for public office. But not in the tradition of Al Franken, who's a serious guy (Stuart Smalley notwithstanding) and knowledgeable about policy. I learned that listening to him on Air America before he ran for office.
The latest SNL alum? Not so much.
Like iron filings to a magnet, Tennessee attracts bizarro types to the public arena. The latest? Victoria Jackson. She was slightly cute as a faint shadow of Gracie Allen kind of zany. And in recent years, she's been a tea party enthusiast. (There's a guy in Iowa, too, a more serious candidate. But that's beyond the scope of this diary.)
Now, "tired of complaining", she's announced she's running for County Commissioner in Williamson County. That county's already represented by Marsha Blackburn in Congress. It's home to an abundant array of cheaply-built MacMansions, home to lots of Hummers. She's running as an independent, not a Republican.
“I just can’t do it anymore; they just don’t have the values of our founding fathers anymore,” Jackson told The Tennessean. “I am sure there are a few Republicans who do. I want less federal government involvement, lower taxes, smaller government, more public involvement, a balanced budget and fiscal responsibility.”
Her key issues for suburban Tennessee are opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood, Agenda 21 and Common Core education standards. (I missed that the Muslim Brotherhood was active in suburban Nashville, but maybe she's onto something that I missed.)
Another version of the story is that she's running for Congress. Does Marsha Blackburn have anything to worry about? Probably not. But one wonders: There's a chance she could draw more votes than the Democratic candidate up against Blackburn. So who knows?
Jackson, also famous for reciting poetry upside-down on Weekend Update, is a Tea Party activist. In a letter to fans on her website declaring her candidacy for the House of Representatives, she stated she would not support “the building of Islamic Centers in the area” because “they are ultimately terrorist training camps.”
She also is against allocating municipal money to build bike paths and walking trails because she believes they are part of a larger plan to “concentrate people groups into cities, forcing mass transit, eliminating cars under the false-science guise of ‘human caused’ global warming/climate change.”
It must be sad to be stuck in a mind with those kinds of thoughts filling it up. Even sadder that other people will vote for it. If nothing else, she'd make Marsha Blackburn look level-headed by comparison.
In case you've forgotten her ditzy shtick:
Not the best that's emerged from SNL over the decades, either for entertainment value, or for useful political thinking. But elect her, and she'll fight Sharia Law!