OPINION: Senate candidate believes trans-species kids use kitty litter in Connecticut schools

Someone recently sent me a bizarre video interview with Jason Guidone, the Republican running to unseat state Sen. Cathy Osten in the 19th District.I know most readers realize I can't stomach a lot of extreme, Trumpish Republicanism these days, and Guidone, who includes a "Vote MAGA" tag on his ads, certainly looked at the outset as worrisome to me as a Senate candidate.But, honestly, after listening to the video interview, I think his political extremism is so stark and troubling he probably needs some kind of intervention. He seems that disconnected from reality.I hope he has some loved ones who are prepared to help.It's like he's overdosed on MAGA rhetoric, tipping his head way too far back while emptying the beaker of bile.Not only does he employ what has now become mainstream Republican talking points these days, attacks on transgender people, suggesting schools are empowering gender change, but he's turbocharged it, worrying about what he calls a "trans-species" movement in Connecticut schools.I know there have been some weird urban myths bouncing around the far reaches of the internet about kids identifying as cats.But Guidone, in an interview posted on the right-wing website Connecticut Centinel, said unequivocally that he believes this.Indeed, he insists on camera that custodians are leaving their jobs at Connecticut schools because they are tired of cleaning schoolchildren's "excrement" from school litter boxes.I've never heard of the Connecticut Centinel, but a quick look at its homepage reveals a clear MAGA-leaning slant to news stories.And yet even the person who interviewed Guidone, Publisher L. Todd Wood, appeared surprised and laughed when the candidate started talking so seriously about about cat-acting students."I have heard of several school systems, from administrators in the towns, that they have children who identify as cats," Guidone said. "I guess they are required, by policy, to support that rather than offer some real help to both the child and families."Guidone laughs, too, while he talks about the litter boxes. If he believes it is true, as he says he does, how can that possibly be funny?Of course, I wanted to reach out and ask Guidone more about what he knows of school administrators stuck with enforcing litter box policies and the custodians who quit because they are tired of emptying them.Heck, I might have asked him too about his last trip in a flying saucer.He wouldn't call me back. He also didn't agree to an interview with The Day for a story about his race.He did respond briefly to me by text, saying he could't talk about the trans-species kids because the "information is coming to the campaign as private discussions with parents in the district."As I tried to wrap my head around the idea that he believes Connecticut schoolchildren are using litter boxes, I came to the part of the interview where Guidone explains to gun owners that the government is not coming to their doors to confiscate their guns.No, he says, they are going to cut off your bank accounts unless you turn the guns in."They'll shut your bank off," he said, saying you won't be able to feed your kids or pay your mortgage unless you turn in your guns.Guidone mentions God a lot in conversation, has crosses on his lawn signs and says in a Facebook posting that Connecticut Democrats are "evil."They are communists, too, he says, specifically calling out Sen. Richard Blumenthal.I think it is especially amusing to think of Blumenthal, one of the richest people in the U.S. Senate, as a communist. I wish he'd give me some of that money if he were.In a video of a campaign rally posted on his campaign Facebook page, Guidone gives a shout-out to Republican state Sen. Heather Somers of Groton, in the audience, who he said taught him that anyone endorsed by the Working Families Party, as Osten was, is a socialist/communist.He says in the same video he believes Jan. 6 was an inside job.Guidone implies in his campaign material that he has done work for ESPN, but he doesn't list any current employment. He didn't answer when I asked him by text if he has a job.He said in the interview he only "jumped into the mix" of politics in the "2020 timeframe." He's now chairman of the Republican committee in Hebron.I am not too worried that voters in the 19th District are going to give him a job and send him to the state Senate.I do worry how Connecticut Republicans have allowed their once-grand party to run so far off the rails that a candidate they put up for Senate uses religious iconography on his campaign signs, says that members of the opposing party are evil, believes that kids are allowed to use litter boxes in the schools because they believe they are cats and that the government is going to shut down your bank accounts if you don't turn in your guns.Do Republicans now really think Connecticut voters are that stupid?This is the opinion of David Collins.d.collins@theday.com