All Villages
White Fear And The Politics Of Hate
While John McCain, undeterred by the failure of his negative campaign, reinvented himself yet again—accusing Barack Obama of being a 'socialist' —Colin Powell made, perhaps, the most eloquent and cogent case yet for Obama, bringing his stoic credibility to bear on the current political process. I can only hope and pray that we, a nation now admonished by Dad Powell, have outgrown this circus, which would make this election a referendum not only on our values but on our very maturity as a nation.
“All
villages have values.”
“All towns have values, not just small towns have values.”
Sunday, former U.S. Secretary of State General Colin Powell
made, perhaps, the most eloquent and convincing case for why
Senator Barack Obama should be the next president of the United
States, bringing his stoic credibility—which had been exploited
and tarnished by service to the Bush Administration—to bear on
the current political process. Powell deftly cleaved through the
political rhetoric of both campaigns, his quiet manner
thundering through the noise and the hype, to give voice to my
own deeply-held convictions in a way I’ve failed to. John
McCain’s improvisational campaign—which included almost daily
new approaches to resolving the economic crisis and his
politically-motivated selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin,
a woman demonstrably out of her depth, as his running mate—has
greatly diminished the senator as a responsible choice to lead a
nation in crisis. As Powell points out, McCain’s cartoonish,
sophomoric and relentlessly negative campaign, while having a
kind of tabloid populism that makes for interesting television,
does not serve America well in that it neither calms nor
reassures a nation, but rather frightens and divides it.
Troubled by the Republican party’s relentless pursuit of Obama’s
spurious connection to 60’s radical Bill Ayers, which hardly
seems germane to the crisis America now faces, as well as by the
conservative groundswell insistence that Obama is a Muslim,
Powell fairly shamed America by eloquently giving voice to our
nation’s purported values. “They keep claiming he’s a Muslim,”
Powell said. “Well, the correct answer is that he’s not a
Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the
really right answer is, ‘What if he is? Is there something wrong
with being a Muslim in this country?’ The answer is no. That’s
not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year old
Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president?
Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the
suggestion that he’s a Muslim and he might be associated with
terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in
America.”
And, no, it’s not. In his rich, Dad Baritone, General Powell
served notice that the party is over. That the foolishness of
politics is an utter waste of time, energy and money, and that
his own party has kept its presidential hopes alive only by
pandering to the most extreme and divisive fringes of our
society. By encouraging racism, by discriminating against Arabs,
Arab Americans, and all those of the Muslim faith. By spreading
fear and pandering to ignorance (this week’s tactic: brand Obama
as a “socialist” as a long way around to calling Obama’s
middle-class tax cuts “welfare,” a time-honored, front-loaded
metaphor for race: the McCain campaign’s latest strategy is to
scare America by suggesting Obama will take the money from the
white people and redistribute it to the black people).
McCain’s flailing, desperate campaign—still, after months of
failing to do Obama in, firmly entrenched in mud rucking—seems
sadly indicative of McCain’s character. It displays a kind of
gross selfishness and political myopia that, as Obama said in
their last debate, says more about McCain than it does about
Obama. That John McCain cannot, apparently, see how puzzlingly
ad hoc his campaign is (I’m struggling not to use he word
“erratic”) is a fair indicator of the kind of stubborn,
improvisational, cranky president he’d be. In fact, the more
flailing McCain does, the more credible and reasonable Barack
Obama seems.
I seriously doubt McCain’s “He’s a Communist!” tack has legs,
McCain now seeming the classic example of the boy crying wolf.
He’s changed his line of attack so many times, accused Obama of
so many things, criticized Obama for virtually everything, that
now it’s all noise. McCain’s own party seems to be obviously
going through the motions, including long-time allies now
cautiously backing away as his campaign implodes. And he *still*
won’t stop the specious, unfounded and ineffectual negative
attacks.
Regardless of who wins, political scholars will undoubtedly
invest years of analysis into the 2008 presidential campaign,
most especially into the slow-motion train wreck that is the
Straight Talk Express. Rick Davis, Senator McCain’s campaign
manager who is usually seen scowling and/or sneering, has,
hopefully, written his own political obituary with this, the sad
finale of a political dinosaur: the right-wing smear campaign. I
can only hope and pray that we, a nation now admonished by Dad
Powell, have outgrown this circus, which would make this
election a referendum not only on our values but on our very
maturity as a nation.
It's possible she didn't hear him. The voice in the crowd
shouting, "Kill Him," at the mention of Senator Barack Obama's
name. That, I am willing to accept. Addressing a huge crowd, it
really is hard to hear, from the podium, what is going on out in
the crowd. This was best evidenced by Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin admonishing her own supporters, lecturing them like
children about the courage and honor of our veterans, when, in
actuality, they were not protestors but were her own supporters
shouting, "Louder— we can't hear you!" Palin’s husband Todd
tried to put an end to the awkward episode by approaching his
wife on stage and telling her, “They just can’t hear you back
there. That’s it.” Palin responded, “OK. I’m doing that,” and
then continued with her stump speech. So, yes, it's tough to
hear from the podium. I also accept the fact Palin is new to
addressing crowds of this size and, even if she did hear the
"Kill Him" shout, her instinct was to stay on message and not
engage spoilers in the audience. Therefore, the best case
scenario I can afford the governor is that she's inexperienced
and made a bad call about this guy. But, once the news cameras
picked up the remark, loudly and clearly, the Republican ticket
had a problem on their hands. Governor Palin should have,
thenceforth, been extra vigilant about extremist remarks,
perhaps even beginning her stump speech with a repudiation of
such remarks from previous rallies. But she didn't. She just
went on lying, yes lying--and knowingly so--about Senator Barack
Obama's record, stirring up anger, enjoying the boos (which
Senator Obama discourages at his own rallies), and firing up the
base to the point where McCain/Palin supporters openly, angrily
sneer their disdain and hatred of Barack Obama to news cameras.
when pressed for reasons, these extremist nuts fire off McCain/Palin
talking points, most often heard: that Obama hangs around
terrorists.
Terrorists. Plural. Something Dave Letterman nailed John McCain
on in an eviscerating interview on his late night talk show.
Giving McCain/Palin a pass on Bill Ayers, whom McCain refers to
as "a washed-up old terrorist," Dave pressed for a second
example of a terrorist Barack Obama might be "hanging out with."
McCain sputtered and tried to make a joke out of it, but the
point was clear: this is a foolish, ridiculous and exaggerated
claim, one only ignorant people are buying into. Which makes the
claim that much more dangerous because ignorance breeds
contempt, hatred and ultimately violence. Now, substitute the
word nigger for the word terrorist, a word, almost universally
associated with Arabs (as demonstrated by an elderly woman,
searching for a a word other than "nigger" to call Obama, who
instead called him an "Arab"). This is not a stretch: the
subtext of the Obama-pals-terrorist smear tactic is clear: Obama
hangs out with Arabs-né-niggers. John McCain has made the world
a much more dangerous place for Barack Obama, a black man
running for president, for whom the world was already quite
dangerous. McCain's despicable campaign tactics have inspired
the most extreme factions of intolerance and hate in this
country, painting a bull's-eye on Senator Obama and rallying the
wing-nut brigade to target him.
Much of which was pointed out by Congressman John Lewis, a civil
rights pioneer who warned last week the Republican presidential
ticket is, “sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there
is no need for this hostility in our political discourse...
During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a
governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also
became a presidential candidate.” McCain went on the offense,
his campaign claiming umbrage and outrage at comments by
Congressman Lewis, calling Lewis’ remarks “beyond the pale” and
calling on Obama to repudiate them. On Monday McCain fumed to
CNN that Lewis’ controversial remarks were “so disturbing” that
they “stopped me in my tracks.” The Obama campaign said any
comparisons to Wallace were out of line, but also said that
“Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that
John McCain himself personally rebuked.” (Atlanta
Journal-Constitution)
This is, of course, the tried and true political technique of
making one's negatives a positive, turning the outrage many
Americans (including increasing numbers of Republicans) feel
about the divisive and racist tone of the McCain campaign into a
positive, with McCain incredulously claiming to be an innocent
victim of race politics. While it is possible the senator really
does not understand how incendiary and dangerous his campaign
tactics have become, that possibility actually worries me more:
that someone so completely out of touch with reality could
possibly win the Oval office. That his supporters could
regularly threaten Senator Obama with violence and those threats
go unchallenged by McCain or Governor Palin, but McCain and
Palin are apalled, "stopped in their tracks," by anyone pointing
out how patently racist and dangerous their scorched-earth hate
rallies are. McCain's phony outrage seizes on the racist
component of Congressman Lewis' George Wallace comparison while
missing the actual point of those remarks: that the GOP ticket
is capriciously fueling an atmosphere of intolerance, violence
and hate that will last well beyond this election. I frankly
doubt the senator is that obtuse: I'm sure he got the point of
Lewis' remarks, but chose nonetheless to politicize them, making
Lewis the bad guy as he goes on pandering to racists and
wing-nuts.
"The heels are on, the gloves are off!" Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin said to rousing cheers in her patented annoying
eighth-grade science teacher whine, as though she's fed up with
Barack Obama, as though Obama has somehow provoked or wronged
her. To the contrary: the Obama campaign—including Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton—has all but ignored Governor Palin,
having said very little about the Governor and having produced
no ads attacking her. So, what's she mad about? The gloves are
off? What does that mean? What does anything this woman says
actually mean? How does turning the presidential campaign even
nastier than they've already run it help anyone? In what way,
specifically, is Governor Palin's completely phony "outrage"
toward Senator Obama productive during this time of crisis?
Going even more negative, when people are frightened, when the
entire global economic system is in upheaval, seems incredibly
selfish and puzzlingly wrongheaded on McCain's part. Normally,
I'd point out how such obscene attacks are well beneath the
dignity of someone claiming to be a follower of Christ, let
alone seeking the second highest office in the land, but Palin
has demonstrated, time and again, to be an empty suit, a
punchline, a national joke. Someone so completely out of her
depth that she's caused millions—with an "M"—of voters to
question John McCain's judgment in selecting her. She is now
knowingly and capriciously lying, sowing discord and
prostituting herself in an effort to get elected, perhaps
banking on McCain's precipitous health to land her in the Oval
Office.
Governor Palin despicably introduced racism into their campaign
by accusing Senator Barack Obama of "palling around with
terrorists" Saturday. This is an accusation which will only be
taken seriously by complete idiots, racists and, likely, the
Christian right. Palin told a group of donors at a private
airport, "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it
seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's
palling around with terrorists who would target their own
country." Palin was referring to Bill Ayers, one of the founders
of the group the Weather Underground. Its members took credit
for bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and
U.S. Capitol, during the Vietnam War era four decades ago.
Obama, who was a child when the group was active, served on a
charity board with Ayers several years ago and has denounced his
radical views and activities. (AP) Senator Obama does not "pal
around" with Ayers and Ayers has no connection to Obama's
campaign--and Palin knows this. Which makes her a liar, and a
capricious, deliberate one. Palin also said, in obvious racist
code, "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and
as I see America." Douglass K. Daniel of the Associated Press
wrote, "Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism.
But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a
black presidential nominee 'palling around' with terrorists
while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't
see their America? ...Whether intended or not by the McCain
campaign, portraying Obama as 'not like us' is another potential
appeal to racism."
Palin's ridiculous accusations would seem to be the product of a
liar's naked ambition. I condemn her choices, here, and I
absolutely condemn the Christian right for supporting this
nonsense, these terrible, racist scare tactics intended to
divide and polarize the nation at a time when we desperately
need to pull together. These people have no solutions. Have no
plan. Have no apparent campaign strategy other than to destroy
the other guy, improvising as they go. These are the politics of
destruction by an aging cancer survivor, a $100 million man with
more money and more houses and cars than he knows what to do
with—and it's still not enough for him. He wants to be president
because he wants to be president—knowing his health will likely
not sustain him through even his first term. The entire pursuit
is wholly selfish, as is Palin's perversion of her alleged
Christian faith in a cynical grab at power. These are shameful,
terrible people. We crucify Christ afresh when we support them,
when we fail to speak out against the lies, against the divisive
tactics, just because these people claim to be Christian and
pro-life. Beloved: it's not enough to claim to be Christian:
there needs to be evidence in our lives, in our choices. Paul
said the works of the flesh are obvious. The evidence before us,
in the Republican tactics, is a perverse and blasphemous
exploitation of things we hold sacred. There are six things the
Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a
lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that
devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a
false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up
dissension among brothers. [Proverbs 6:16-19]. If you're calling
yourself a Christian, you should condemn this foolishness.
"Well, she's pro-life," I hear my conservative brother say.
Maybe she is, but here she is demonstrating she is anti-God. She
is a liar who is knowingly lying and deliberately out to destroy
someone. And when you support her, you become just as big a
hypocrite as she obviously is.
All of which, of course, beggars the question, at what point was
the McCain campaign anything but divisive, racist and negative?
For about five minutes at the start of the presidential race,
McCain’s ads were hopeful and encouraging, talking about his
vision for America. Six minutes into the campaign, McCain hired
Karl Rove protégés to assault Barack Obama’s character and
distort his record with misleading and untruthful claims, the
strategy being to knock Obama off-message as the Obama campaign
scrambled to respond to every petty accusation the McCain camp
made. Needless to say, this is not, by any stretch, Christian
behavior, which puts the lie to the McCain campaign’s core
claims of integrality and both Senator McCain and Governor Sarah
“Winky” Palin’s assertion that they have bee born again. As a
follower of Christ, I could never authorize such a divisive,
scorched earth plan which, if successful, will bloody the hands
of the next U.S. president while further dividing the nation
this man has pledged to unite. These are the tactics of George
W. Bush: claim to be a follower of Christ, a “uniter,” while
setting neighbor against neighbor through hateful tactics.
McCain, the straight-talk hope for white conservative
Christians, has announced his intention to destroy another human
being through lies and innuendo. And the Christian right marches
in lock step behind him in the "name of Jesus." Honestly, if
this guy invested even half as much energy in coming up with
solutions to America's many challenges as he does in coming up
with ways to attack his opponent, he'd have half a shot at
earning my vote. As a Christian, as someone who graduated
seventh grade, I could never vote for these people. Ever.
Certainly, as followers of Christ, we need to put our ethics
where our mouth is. Which may not necessarily translate into a
vote for Obama, but it ought to be a vote for Jesus, in Whose
name these two shameful liars come.
RightUpFront.Org
Listen my fellow believers, I will not
pretend to "hear voices of the divine", and I will not claim to
have visions of our lord that would somehow indicate his
political affiliation. However, because everytime Hill-dog or
Barack give speeches little horns pop out of their heads, and
tails sprout from the liberal behinds it is obvious who the
heavenly father supports.
John McCain is angelic in every sense of the word. While many
claim his old age places him too close to the grave to be
President, I counter by saying his old age puts him "closer to
god", in fact about as close as you can get. Isn't that what
this nation needs? A candidate with Jesus as his right-hand man?
A vote for John is a vote for Jesus.
1 comments:
You will, of course, burn in hell, for suggesting that Christ
would have ever supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Sunscreen ain't going to help you, pal.
It seems to me that, rather than take the gloves off against
Obama, what would really benefit McCain is if he took the gloves
off against Bush. But he really can’t do that because he’s spent
the last eight years voting with the president in order to stay
politically alive. But a straight-talkin’ McCain, hammering away
at George Bush, would gain a lot more tactician than this phony
outrage against a guy whose done this nation absolutely no harm.
McCain supporters “frightened” of an Obama presidency simply do
not understand basic, grade-school social studies. While I
believe a Sarah Palin presidency would be a grave insult to the
very office, I remain confident in the American system of checks
and balances to power. Even a President Palin couldn’t
completely run the ship aground without help from Congress.
It is worth noting that, for me, this entire noisy campaign
really boils down to a single issue: the specter of a President
Palin. The probability (moreso than possibility) of Governor
Palin assuming the office of president is, for me, the single
issue of this campaign. Senator Obama, perhaps loathe to
alienate women voters, won’t state the obvious. But this woman
is wholly unprepared to assume the office of PTA chairperson,
let alone the highest elected office in the land. This would
seem obvious to me, the top issue. Not the war. Not the economy.
The sheer selfishness of a 72-year old four-time cancer survivor
placing someone second rate a heartbeat away from the
presidency. That’s it. There are no other issues: I could never
support that ticket. Had McCain gone with his gut and chosen
Lieberman, he’d likely have lost the wing-nut crowd, but I
believe he’d be way out in front. Lieberman is liked very much
on both sides of the aisle (though his anti-Obama rhetoric is
costing him a great deal). Even Mitt Romney, who has a kind of
Richard Nixon thing going on with his eyes, would have given the
McCain campaign credibility. Instead, McCain went for
sensationalism—and got the burst of energy he needed. But it is
a selfish, political decision. And, once the balloons and
confetti have been swept up, this aging man—who, if you look
closely, tends to clench one hand with the other a lot, to
perhaps mask hand tremors, and whose official photos are all
shot from one side of his face—will have positioned a woman who
doesn’t apparently read a newspaper to assume the presidency.
There is no other issue. That’s it. All the rest of the
hollering is just noise. No mature, thinking American citizen
should be even considering allowing Sarah Palin into that
position. And, yet, Palin’s rallies overflow with screaming,
adoring fans. Which presents an even scarier problem: the
willingness of conservatives to be lied to and taken advantage
of. If Obama was smearing McCain (well, okay, I mean on the
level McCain is playing at), if Obama was stirring up hate and
even violence toward McCain and using hateful, deceptive and
divisive tactics—I could never support the guy. Black? So what.
Democrat? Who cares. If the situation was reversed, I’d be just
as vocal about Obama’s sleazy tactics as I am about McCain’s. My
ire is not politically or racially motivated. I’m angry because
McCain and Palin are weasels. And their campaign is a hateful,
divisive one. And both these people claim to be “born again,”
whatever that apparently means to lying weasels, blaspheming the
Gospel of Jesus Christ as they exploit it for political gain.
It annoys me that white folk tend to assume I’m in the tank for
Obama because of some shared ancestry. I’m sure a great many
blacks are, in fact, Obama supporters for no other reason. I
mean, *I* can’t discuss Obama’s health care plan intelligently,
and most black folk I know couldn’t tell you even a single
policy issue the man holds. But I was a huge John McCain fan
back in 2000. I mean it, I was thinking of volunteering for the
guy. While I am indeed immeasurably pleased by the historic
nature of Obama’s success, my vote was hardly automatic. And it
wasn’t even so much that Obama earned my vote as it was that
McCain lost it. That his nasty, divisive campaign just turned me
off. His selection of “Winky” Palin and her subsequent hateful,
empty-headed libel against Senator Obama were just nails in the
coffin. I question McCain’s judgment. He seems off his game,
indecisive, snippy. He has no message other than Don’t Vote For
The Black Kid. That’s it. It’s his only message: make us afraid
of the black guy. His entire campaign seems largely
improvisational and he has so many Republicans lying for him,
supporting Winky, that he’s doing inestimable damage not only to
his own brand name but to these Republicans’ credibility as
well. These people know Palin is an onion. They do. Yet they go
out there like soldiers, lying and in obvious agony about having
to do so.
It really frightens me that, were the situation reversed, were
this Obama changing his message every day, acting erratically,
“suspending his campaign,” selecting Winky, running hate-filled
borderline Nazi TV commercials—I could never support him. Ever.
The fact these Republicans, and, let’s just say it, these *white
folk,* are turning a blind eye and deaf ear to behavior they
clearly know is questionable really frightens me. I mean, come
on, my only alternative is to call these people stupid. They’re
not stupid. These are nice people who get cats out of trees and
donate to charity and keep their lawns trimmed and conduct
themselves by practice better than mostly Church Folk do by
[claiming Christ]. But these folks are swallowing this nonsense
and even defending it. Largely out of fear of The Unknown. That
senior citizen, a woman in red who called Obama an “Arab” at a
McCain rally—she reminds me of the people on this block. Half of
them seem to hate me because I’ve repeatedly asked my next door
neighbor to control his dog’s barking. So he goes whining to
them, and they gossip about it. They never ask me. They never
listen to what I have to say. They never give me any benefit of
the doubt, and they are quick to always, I mean every single
solitary time, think the absolute worst of me. They talk to the
guy with the dog, take his word for it, like he’s an expert on
me. He knows *nothing* abut me other than that I would like some
peace and quiet in my own home. But these people take his word
for Gospel, he’s the Priest expert. And, without ever hearing my
side of things, they decide I’m the enemy. I’m evil. I’m
strange. I’m an Arab.
This is precisely the kind of fear—and that’s what it is,
fear—that congeals into hate and, ultimately, violence. Some
people at the McCain rally snickered when she said, “Arab.” But
I nearly wept. Because this dear woman was simply giving voice
to the fears of *millions,* which shows how deeply entrenched
racism really is. And while Senator McCain deserves kudos for
defending his rival, it is worth noting what he didn’t defend
were Arabs. There are millions of Arab Americans in this country
who were libeled and discriminated against. While McCain was
defending Obama, he should have defended Arabs, or at the very
least, Arab Americans. It’s worth noting Barack Obama missed
that call, too.
While I tend to believe Democrats would more likely challenge
Obama on divisive tactics and choices, the Republicans seem
content to drink the Kool-Aid, parrot the talking points and
defend this nonsense, knowing it is, in fact, nonsense, even as
I am convinced these same people, in the quiet of their rooms,
worry if Gramps isn’t losing it.
I’m starting to think these people are indeed gullible and, yes,
stupid. I mean, they elected George Bush twice, which I find
completely unfathomable. I’m really struggling to understand
this mindset where people see and hear despicable things, see
and hear Winky The Twinkie repeatedly make a fool of herself,
see all of McCain’s campaign photos are shot from the same side
of his face (to take emphasis off the scar on the other side),
see and hear people screaming “Bomb Obama” and “Kill him” at
rallies—unchallenged by the GOP nominees. They see and hear all
of this, and yet shutter their conscience to what is obviously a
campaign of hate. They dismiss what is right before them and
embrace this nonsense, making excuses for obviously despicable
behavior. And many if not most of these people call themselves
Christians, say their prayers at night.
I really struggle with this: I can’t fathom good people of good
conscience not making a stand against hate. That these people
want to win so bad, they’re willing to sell their soul to do it.
Christopher J. Priest
19 October 2008
editor@praisenet.org
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