The RP: Is Anti-Hinduism the GOP’s New Silver Bullet?

By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Nov 3, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET

Yesterday, Jack Brammer, the dean of Kentucky’s political reporters (and one of the nicest guys in Frankfort), revealed GOP gubernatorial nominee David Williams’ “November Surprise”: The Senate President would overcome incumbent Steve Beshear’s 30 point lead in the polls by exposing the Governor’s participation in a traditional Indian ground-blessing ceremony for a new India-owned, 250-American-jobs-creating, manufacturing plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Here’s a snippet of Williams‘ attacks on Beshear:

David Williams in a non-polytheistic situation.

“He’s there participating with Hindu priests, participating in a religious ceremony,” Williams said during a campaign stop in Shelbyville. “He’s sitting down there with his legs crossed, participating in Hindu prayers with a dot on his forehead with incense burning around him. I don’t know what the man was thinking…If I’m a Christian, I don’t participate in Jewish prayers. I’m glad they do that. I don’t participate in Hindu prayers. I don’t participate in Muslim prayers. I don’t do that…To get down and get involved and participate in prayers to these polytheistic situations, where you have these Hindu gods that they are praying to, doesn’t appear to me to be in line with what a governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky ought to be doing.”

In my latest Huffington Post piece, I tackle the national ramifications:

The new Willie Horton?

After this coming Tuesday’s election, we will learn if the anti-Hinduism strategy works. If Williams can grasp victory out of an almost-assured landslide defeat, expect a whole new arsenal of Indo-phobic attacks in time for 2012. Consider these questions:

Will old photos of political candidates be scoured for evidence of forehead dots and/or smelled carefully for traces of incense?

Will Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the much-too-friendly convenience store clerk on The Simpsons emerge as the 2012 campaign’s Willie Horton?

Will the birther community find new life by exploring Barack Obama’s exposure to “polytheistic situations” during his childhood years in Indonesia? (Which sounds a whole lot like India, doesn’t it? Well, doesn’t it?)

Will Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative finally be scrutinized for its promotion of yoga poses that reflect the idolatry-minded principles of their Hindu teachers?

And will anybody discover an old Joe Biden quote referring to Ghandi as “articulate and bright but a bit disheveled”?