At a campaign rally in New Mexico on Monday October 7, 2008, the overall tone and eventual effect of John McCain's campaign of hate became evident. The self-described maverick, who has co-opted his opponents mantra of change, was appearing before a friendly crowd of die-hard supporters.
During his stump speech when McCain asked the rhetorical question "Who is Barack Obama?", a supporter yelled an answer - "Terrorist!" McCain, obviously hearing the word, pauses momentarily as the audience laughs. Instead of chastising the audience member, or even making a joke about the fact that the supporters view is obviously extreme in the highest degree, McCain continued on with his speech without any acknowledgment aside from a momentary worried look.
Meanwhile, McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, spoke at a rally in Jacksonville, FL. Working the crowd into a fevered pitch, she told those gathered that Barack Obama "is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America. I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country."
As the crowd replied with a chorus of boos, one man took it to the extreme shouting "Kill him!" Palin did not react and simply continued her attacks.
When she told the crowd that Obama had said that "our troops in Afghanistan are 'air raiding villages and killing civilians,'" not only did she mis-characterize a 2007 remark by by the Senator asking for more troops in Afghanistan, she also further inflamed the audiences hatred. During a brief pause, a man can be heard yelling "Treason!" loudly enough to be picked up by the microphone on stage.
Hatred and racism is being directed at anyone who McCain-Palin supporters view as enemies of the campaign - basically anyone who isn't a white Christian conservative supporter of the pair. The Washington Post reported:
Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."
Fellow Stormchaser Brent posted on his blog An Angry North Dakota Democrat:
A Florida middle school teacher faced disciplinary action after using the word "nigger" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama...
The 7th grade teacher, Greg Howard, asked his students what "change" stood for in relation to the Obama campaign and proceeded to write out the acronym "Come Help A Nigger Get Elected."
The school suspended Howard without pay for 10 days and removed him from his position at the school.
Throughout the campaign, many people have whispered in my ear "If Obama gets elected, he'll get killed." At first this startled me and I only nodded. But recently I've began asking them "You know that for sure? Do you know who's planning it so I can tell the Secret Service?" That's usually the end of the conversation.
Seeing the overt racism, and the kind that takes place all over America - at campaign rallies, VFW meetings and water cooler get-togethers - is disturbing and disappointing. We've lied to our ourselves in believing that we've progressed to the point that we are beyond racism. It's alive and well and John McCain and Sarah Palin are using it to fire up the Republican base.
The April 1 statement from John McCain that he would run a "respectful campaign" must have been an April fools joke. April is a lifetime ago and long forgotten. Lies, hatred and racism are all on the table now and signs from his campaign are that there are no limits to the depths they'll sink to win. And it begs the question: regardless of the outcome of the election - win or lose - how much damage are they willing to do in the process?
ShareThis
0 comments:
Post a Comment