Well, folks, here we go.

It’s been a while in coming, but now that we’re finally loading the starting gate, it’s time to start paying attention to the horses in this race.

Trust me: This one’s going to be winner-take- all, unless something really bad happens in the next year and a half. This is a prediction and it’s not going to come as any sort of surprise if you’ve paid any attention at all to the things I’ve posted since I launched this blog.

There are two sites (and their articles) that I think you need to read and bookmark. First up:

PolitiFact.com from the Tampa Bay Times (http://www.politifact.com/).

If you think a statement is too good to be true (or too likely), check it here. This non-partisan site will debunk the statement to the best of its ability. Start here before visiting Snopes.com for anything that’s on the political spectrum, and that includes what the press has to say on the subject.

And second:

This specific article, from Daily Kos: What Happens if the Tea Party Patriots ever Do “Take Their Country Back”?. This study is as complete a damning of every GOP candidate as you’ll find.

Don’t know what the John Birch Society is? Here: Wikipedia: John Birch Society

Can’t stand Daily Kos? Here: The New John Birch Society

You can do the research yourself, by following the links in the Wikipedia article. There’s a ton of footnotes and links to external sites from the main Wikipedia page. You need to understand about reading between the lines.

Understand: If you support the Tea Party, you are supporting the next US Civil War, because that is what the GOP wants. And if they don’t get their way in 2016 because we elected Hillary Clinton, they’ll try again in 2020. And in 2024.

Mark my words: If the GOP takes the White House in 2016, there will be no returning to Democracy. None. Not in your lifetime or your children’s. Every bleak concept introduced in The Handmaid’s Tale, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, in The Prince for that matter, that will be our reality.

If you think for one moment that we can’t have a world like we had during World War II, if you think it can’t happen here, you’re wrong. A Second American Civil War isn’t just science fiction fantasy.

Start your reading now. You have roughly nine months.