And really the unsayable. But I've been thinking about this McCain-Palin Obama "palling around with terrorist" idea more lately. The saddest thing about many Republicans isn't just that they disagree with liberals on race--it's they are largely ignorant on race. When the McCain campaign cast the spell of diabolical jingoism, they have no idea of the forces they are toying with. We remember Martin Luther King's murder as a sad and tragic event. Less remembered is the fact that ground-work for King's murder was seeded, not simply by rank white supremacy, but by people who slandered King as a communist.
This was not some notion bandied about by conspiracy theorist, but an accusation proffered by men who were the pillars of the modern Republican Party:
As late as 1964, Falwell was attacking the 1964 Civil Rights Act as "civil wrongs" legislation. He questioned "the sincerity and intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations." Falwell charged, "It is very obvious that the Communists, as they do in all parts of the world, are taking advantage of a tense situation in our land, and are exploiting every incident to bring about violence and bloodshed."Falwell was not alone. These men didn't kill Martin Luther King, but they contributed to an atmosphere of nationalism, white supremacy and cheap unreflective patriotism that ultimately got a lot of people killed. Confronted with Aparthied South Africa, men like Helms and Falwell used the same "communist" defense. While Mandella wasted away in prison, they dismissed the whole thing as a communist plot.
Let me be clear--This is the ghost that McCain Campaign is summoning. This is the Ring Of Power that they want to wield. The Muslim charge, the "Hussein" thing is nothing more than today's red-baiting, and it is what it was then--a cover for racists. You may say I'm overreacting, and I really hope you're right. 999,000 out 1 million times we'll go on like normal and proceed to Election Day. But if some shit pops off, the thug and thug-mongers will not be able to throw up their hands and say "How could I have known?" Ignorance will not save them. Their stupidity is a scourge on us all.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
We certainly don't want anything to happen to Obama. But he has a ton of secret service protection (which he certainly needs). The less obvious problem is for the rest of us.
We sort of forget that "domestic terrorism" appeared in rather spectacular form during the Clinton administration. Tim McVeigh wasn't just blowing up stuff--he was blowing up the "federal government" (in the form of red state babies, apparently). And people weren't even calling Bill Clinton a terrorist.
I'm not suggesting we run around with our hair on fire because of this--but I think some serious thought has to be given to tracking "domestic terrorists" and taking them just as seriously as foreign terrorists--*especially* during an Obama administration. Certainly it doesn't help that McCain and Palin are whipping this stuff up, but on the other hand, this is like an early warning and it's better to get this on the radar now rather than be taken by surprise. I guess these people didn't have as much to be angry about under Bush, but I expect they'll be plenty angry under Obama.
Can we see a picture of McCain hugging Falwell while we're at this? Thanks in advance.
(Hope that "Enter 'foo' below" thing works!)
Just once, I'd like somebody to ask McCain, "This Ayers guy, you say he's a terrorist, right? So what's he doing walking free? Go arrest him!"
Oh I don't think you're over reaching. I think you are right. At first I cautioned people to not get hysterical over the "treason" type comments. But now I see a larger pattern emerging. Unless those comments are coming from democrats posing as republicans in order to cast them in the worst light, I believe the Republican party has a responsibility to squash that ugliness right now.
I have such a sick feeling in my stomach whenever you hear the reports from these rallies. People shouting "Kill him!" and "Off with his head!" I worry for Obama, and I also really and truly worry about how far they are from becoming an honest to god lynching mob. They are ginning up these crowds and doing not a damn thing to stop them from getting out of control.
Like TNC, I hope I'm overreacting, but they really scare the shit out of me.
And people had the gall to compare Obama's rallies to Hitler's. Let's just say nobody ever died because people were whipped up into a frenzy of hope.
> I really hope your right.
This should be "you're".
(You don't need to actually post this comment-- I'm just trying to be helpful.)
They're playing with racial and jingoistic themes in the hopes that they can reap the benefits and sidestep the consequences. They can't or refuse to appreciate the dangers of this strategy. They don't know the line because they never had to and don't care. Must be nice.
999,000 out of a million? How about 999 out of one thousand.
Amen! There is no more dangerous beast than a cornered animal. There are huge swaths of white American that feels under siege (needless to say that this sentiment is a load of shit) and in danger of losing their privileged status to the great "other." Most of these people cannot compete in the modern world and risk losing their remaining social/economic/political status if forced to compete in a genuine meritocracy. Their only answer is to crush "the other" and perpetuate a racist system whereby simply being white "Christians" ensures they always remain on top.
I am starting to truly fear for the safety of Obama and don't even want to contemplate what implications of the unthinkable. It sends a deep shudder down my spine.
Decent Americans of all races, creeds and colors need to unite now to smash this vile movement before it is too late.
We cannot sit passively by and expect the media and political classes to take care of this for us. We need to unite now! We're all in this together.
Shorter TNC,
Hanging out with a white guy who once tried to kill a lot people is fine, but pointing it out is racist.
I'm guessing that if McCain had launched his political career in the living room of someone who had once tried to bomb an abortion clinic, had worked with the same person on an education board, and had positively reviewed a book he wrote, liberals would scream themselves silly. And they wouldn't buy the notion that any attempt to make political hay of this association was an example of anti-Christian bigotry. Get serious.
"The saddest thing about many Republicans isn't just that they disagree with liberals on race--it's they are largely ignorant on race."
This is so true. It seems like we're always trying to figure out whether some Republican is racist or just stupid. Like Rep. Westmoreland's "uppity" comment a few weeks ago, for example. It never occurred to me that people wouldn't know the racial connotations of that word, but I actually came to think that it was entirely plausible that Westmoreland really didn't have a clue.
And just for laughs, remember what happened when Mitt Romney tried talking to black people for the first time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDwwAaVmnf4
TNC -- Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post. It needed to be said. I'm also thankful for Biden's comments yesterday in which he calls on McCain and Palin to denounce those types of hateful comments AS they are said...Not in an ineffective "press release" after the fact. I'll be directing a lot of people to read your post because I think you address the real dangers in heading down this path. I'm praying for the safety of ALL four candidates, as well as for sanity at our polling places on election day. We've lost too many great public figures to fear & hatred fueled by propaganda and conspiracy wars -- we can't let it happen again.
I completely agree with you on the dangers and total irresponsibility of the McCain campaign in engaging in this type of accusation. Yet, some stupid part of me wish that McCain would actually go further, more overtly racist and ridiculous in the accusations so that actual thinking, reasonable people would not even consider voting for him. Right now, most journalists are still covering it as if this is an attack on Obama's character - like Bush calling Gore stiff or Kerry elitist - when what McCain is actually doing is much much worse than that.
And can I just say I really, really hate this supposed equivalency of both candidates "speaking in codes" that some journalists are hammering on -hey, Obama was speaking in code about McCain's age, too. As if that is in any way equivalent to race-baiting. And with Sarah Palin as the VP pick, I actually think McCain's age is a fair isuue to bring up.
you sure you're on the right thread, torourke ? cause there's nothing in TNCs post about Ayers.
For one thing, Ayers is white. That alone makes the "racists, arise" argument a bit weak. And of course, no one was using this sort of scary rhetoric (King and Mandela, really?) when Hillary brought up Ayers and Wright. I might be more inclined to agree with you if McCain were hitting Obama hard on the Wright connection, but he's declared that one off limits.
Hanging out with a white guy who once tried to kill a lot people is fine
That's a terrible way to talk about John McCain.
No doubt about it. I have a friend who works for a sound/audio company contracted to do McCain/Palin events recently and he says it's quite frightening to hear the stuff that is being screamed back at Palin as she whips the crowd into a xenophobic frenzy full of barely disguised racism. He said he expected them to whip out effigies of Obama and start burning them any minute. And the sea of white faces full of rage, screaming for Obama to be hung or killed is something he doesn't remember ever seeing since his childhood days watching the Civil Rights era unfold on the evening news.
This is truly the sickening underbelly of the GOP. It truly frightens me. I know my friend was quite frightened by his first-hand experiences with it.
I might be more inclined to agree with you if McCain were hitting Obama hard on the Wright connection, but he's declared that one off limits.
off limits? what the fnck? Palin talks about Wright at her rallies!
Torourke,
You don't get it do you? If McCain and Palin want to point out Ayers, that's one thing. But if people start calling Obama a terrorist and start threatening him (with terrorist plots I'm assuming, btw) and McCain and Palin don't do anything about it, that's a very different thing. For them to ignore the danger of that, or worse yet encourage it, is irresponsible. If what Ayers did is so bad, why would you then ignore it if someone from the right did the same thing?
In the end, it's not about Ayers. I mean, didn't Palin want us to focus on the future and not the past?
Watch our for actions against voters, especially people of color, on election day.
Might be time to invest in some personal protection, just in case.
Nice effort with the picture. McCain and Falwell look like they ought to get a room.
The issue here, is about instigation and inciting certain underlying feelings.
We have spent decades working to make sure that people understand that racism and bigotry is unacceptable. What McCain and Palin are doing with their rhetoric is saying, "You know what, it is okay to be racist, go ahead - he IS different, and different is BAD!" Oh, and while we don't mention it outright - psssst, he's black!
What McCain and Palin are doing is validating feelings of racism and bigotry. They are saying that it is OKAY to feel that way, it is OKAY to believe that different is dangerous. And by validating it, they are encouraging despicable behavior.
Finally - how far a walk is it from words to action? You have people willing to say in public, within earshot of the candidate, things like "treason", "off with his head", "kill him", and "terrorist". And McCain/Palin, have done nothing, NOTHING, to prevent their supporters from expressing these sentiments.
McCain/Palin are stirring up ignorant, racist, and bigoted people, to a frothing rage. And nothing good will come of it.
Hillary questioned Barack's associations as well, but I don't ever recall hearing her crowds yell this kind of hateful speech. The fact that McCain has not addressed this makes his posturing about being an "honorable man" so terribly sad and pathetic.
Would love to see McCain asked point blank at the last debate whether he thought Obama was a terrorist. Because he seriously needs to be called on this publicly.
Finally, outrage!
This is real concern. I know firsthand what a ripe situation for political assassination looks like. I lived in the Phillipines when Aquino was shot, and while the circumstances were drastically different (that was a military assassination, for one), there were 3 main dynamics at play that apply to the current election season here in the U.S. Has the match been lit? Check. Are powerful figures throwing fuel on the fire? Check. Is someone's quest for power at risk? Check.
This is scary stuff. God forbid Obama were assassinated, we'd have mobocracy on our hands. And let me tell you something, that is a long, long bloody haul.
Yes, there are white people who truly don't know the forces McCain's team is playing with. Being oblivious is part of their privilege.
But, at least in the South, there are plenty of white people who do know. My parents, for example, say they knew in the 1950s that Dr. King would be murdered: they knew from things said casually by people all around them in south Georgia. My mother says she doesn't focus on those who actually killed Goodman, Cheney, and Schwerner and so many before them, but on judges and sheriffs and editors and leading citizens who knew full well the dangers that can wait on country roads.
There are folks who know and shudder and do something (effective or futile) to keep the evil at bay.
There are also folks who know and look for an angle. A profit. A way to turn a small church into a big one. A way to get elected or stay in office.
Plenty of people know.
They don't even have to be especially racist themselves. All they have to do is be willing to let bad things happen to others so that they themselves can keep or gain more of the good things in life.
Lee Atwater knew the fire he was playing with. Rove may not. Bill Clinton knew when he landed in South Carolina this spring. Sarah Palin probably doesn't. With John McCain, I can't quite tell.
But do know that there are white people who utterly know the fire and still think it's a useful toy.
I'm starting to sound like someone with a hobbyhorse.
We have spent decades working to make sure that people understand that racism and bigotry is unacceptable.
Successfully, and a very good thing it is.
What hasn't been done (and is just as badly needed) is to make communism (Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban, or American) JUST AS unacceptable. Praising with someone who is or was openly pro-communist ought to be in the same category of "don't even think about it" that praising Beckwith or Tillman is.
Since McCain isn't available, I guess I'll ask torourke. So Ayers is a terrorist. What's he doing walking free? We know where he is. If we've got evidence he's a terrorist, why is he organizing educational events for a Republican instead of rotting in Guantanamo?
"But if some shit pops off, the thug and thug-mongers will not be able to throw up their hands and say "How could I have known?"
You're absolutely right about that.
John,
You and our esteemed host are wrong. The thug-mongers can always throw up their hands and say "How could I have known?"
We can say they're guilty,and that will be true.
They can say they're innocent, and that will be false.
But there will be no real consequences in this life.
That's how privilege works.
Over at National Review they're *literally* calling him a closet socialist, saying that an Obama administration would be "the most left-wing ever" (a lie AND a non sequitur), AND talking up his love of terrorists. This scorched earth stuff has just got to stop. It's irresponsible.
Sporcupine,
Every bill, due to be paid--even when people don't know they're paying. The consequences of MLK's murder were tremendous for this country. Think on it. It was just black people who paid the cost. The price-tag isn't always obvious. But it's there.
"What if John McCain had launched his political career in the living room of a terrorist?"
A quick look at Wikipedia shows that these are the men who launched McCain's political career: Jim Hensley (his father-in-law), Charles Keating, and Darrow Tully (publisher of The Arizona Republic).
Charles Keating we know about.
Jim Hensley was the subject of a criminal investigation, and there are intimations of mob ties. You remember the mob, right? Those domestic terrorists who steal, sell drugs, intimidate, and murder?
Darrow Tully was the subject of a criminal investigation that led to his resignation from the paper.
So, if we were to draw the same kind of inferences from these associations that Republicans want to draw about Ayers, what would we conclude about McCain?
That he believes that businessmen should be allowed to steal from the public and, when their theft imperils the economy, the public should also pay for the losses incurred by the thefts.
That he supports the mob and its violent and criminal activities.
That he doesn't care about crime.
Based on those conclusions, one might as, "Who is John McCain? Why won't he be honest about his acquaintance? What does it say about his judgment?"
But you know what, almost no one is asking these questions, and no one is creating an atmosphere of violent hatred over them.
I agree that the price was massive, and dearly paid, but the guilty didn't pay anything more than the innocent, and the weak paid more than the strong.
"There are huge swaths of white American that feels under siege "
Oh bullshit, Tyler - most of white America has bigger fish to fry than their grandparents' racial superstitions. What do you know about huge swaths of white America anyway? Do you have any basis other than generalizing from some morons at hate rallies and some polls in backward, hollowed out states.
What kind of college student nonsense is "white America" anyway? Do you really think it's all one monolithic demographic?
But TNC is right, this is how it starts. And it wouldn't take any kind of majority or mass sentiment. It only takes one bullet.
"What hasn't been done (and is just as badly needed) is to make communism (Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban, or American) JUST AS unacceptable. "
And the same should go for Fundamentalism. Being seen with Falwell or Palin's preacher or showing up at Jim Jones University should be political suicide. And it's disgrace that it isn't in this couontry.
because of our history, the actions, and words of mccain's campaign cannot be unintentional.
they understand exactly what they are doing.
what is amazing is that they are so upfront about it.
frankly, i would not be surprised if the people shouting, "kill him" and "terrorist" and "off with his head" were actually audience plants.
the idea is to get the thought into the bloodstream of their followers, while laying the rationalization for the act.
what is amazing is that our supposed press is NOT reporting what is happening.
what little i've seen on the issue has dealt with it as tangentially as possible.
it needs to be confronted, head on.
They know what they're doing, Coates. They know damn well what they're doing. But, they won't be let off the hook. Black folks know which way is up. They must be held responsible for whatever happens negatively, because they fostered the climate. Period.
There is only one path to victory in this kind of war; you have to kill 'em with kindness.
I agree 100%. This is scary. Someone from Israel commented the other day that this kind of "demonization" of Yitzhak Rabin preceded his assassination. The fact that McCain and Palin are not only making these statements but not admonishing the crowds is beyond despicable. John McCain has lost all the honor he once claimed to hold dear, and all the respect he once received. I also think it is time for the media to call this out before it is too late.
Personally I think that the Republican party knows full well what it is playing with. Am I the only one that remembers Trent Lott's comments about Strom Thurmond? The difference between then and now is that the sentiment which used to be expressed with a wink and a nod between "friends" is now out in the open because of Obama's candidacy.
I'm not entirely sure but I think this is more of a generational and a regional thing than a white vs black thing. I also think that this ties in with the bigotry vs. structural racism that TNC was talking about earlier.
As a white dude I react so strongly against bigotry and prejudice because I see it as being the last defense of a structurally racist system.
There is a symbiotic relationship between bigotry and exploitation, and this relationship serves to benefit a minority of people at the expense of the welfare of the majority.
The Republicans in this instance know exactly what they are doing. In a nutshell they are using the sentiments of the disadvantaged and ecconomically downtrodden to stir up mass emotional support for so-called "social" issues that outside of the election don't matter at all.
The strategy is in essence a classic bait and switch. The so-called "conservatives" (who aren't really conservative in any pluralistic, humanistic, limited government, classically liberal sort of way) use the sentiments of those segments of society which don't have as many options to perpetuate their hold on power. Once elected the focus changes and the people whose sentiments were manipulated to win the election are ignored because they don't have any money, power, or influence. The cycle repeats every four years.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
"And people had the gall to compare Obama's rallies to Hitler's. Let's just say nobody ever died because people were whipped up into a frenzy of hope."
In fact the comparison between the two is entirely specious. Obama on stage can't even be compared to Howard Dean, let alone Adolf.
Curiously, few have pointed to the contradictions between the two memes with which the media discusses the Obama campaign:
"Obama as celebrity"
and "too cool, can't relate."
This may sound a bit cheesy but after reading this post and this thread I was impelled to put my hands together and say a few earnest prayers for Obama's safety. As TNC points out there are some truly malicious and reckless people out there who don't give a damn about what they are stirring up. Obama is a courageous man with, I think, a very clear view of the risks he is taking in his position. Let's all do our best to send some good thoughts and vibrations his way (and to the skills and alertness of his Secret Service people as well)...
If it's any consolation to you all, I'm a Republican, and this kind of crap is one reason I'm voting for Obama. These people deserve to lose, and Obama has been nothing but class in handling it.
'foo' - I say that, should anything happen to any of us, Sen. Obama, Sen. Biden or their families, McCain and Palin should be at the top of the list of those to be held accountable. The two of them are nothing more than low life, scum of the earth, snake in the grass people stirring Satan's brew. It is unbelievable that the Republicans want to be perceived by this "Palin-McCain" representation. The statements being made are appalling and vicious, to say the least. It's this type of character building mentality in a certain sector of our populace that gives America a bad name. And to think! this type of moranic behavior has "ruled" for the past 8 years and they want another 4! On the other hand, it's good that these people are coming forth...now they can be "stalked", so to speak, of future activities. I just pray that for most of our populace, we are above such slander....obiviously, McCain is NOT...for he is allowing this picture to form. The mentality that goes along with this Republican platform .... party members have to be sooooo proud! McCain has branded them for life.
Of course you are right. It literally sickens me to see those rallies. And it goes far beyond the personal concern for Obama. It's the fomenting of division and hatred at a time when we face the worst crisis (crises, really, everywhere we look) that those snarling people have ever known. At a time when our national survival may well depend on the extent to which we can see ourselves as in it together, finding common solutions, McCain (who ought to know better) and Palin (who has no clue) are sowing seeds of national destruction. Happily, willingly. To win an election. Country first? Yeah, right.
Hanging out with a white guy who once tried to kill a lot people is fine
Hey dumbass, the Weather Underground ALWAYS gave warning of their bombings and ensured no casualties. The only people to ever die from a Weather Underground bomb were Weathermen themselves in an accident.
I'm not defending their actions, but you're either lying or ignorant, so I need to point it out.
To any who might think this point of view is sensationalistic, I would remind them of another serious country, another right wing campaign that drove fringe supporters too far, and the resulting assasination of another great human being, Yitzhak Rabin.
Overreacting? Hardly. No one's reacting enough. There needs to be a wide, public call for these two to publicly denounce these people - especially by the reasonable conservatives whose party has been hijacked by these wingnuts. I'll buy that they didn't hear it during the speech. But they know it now, and they're saying nothing. What's worse? Serving on a board with someone who had dangerous political leanings thirty years ago, or inciting dangerous mobs today? How can anyone, no matter what party, not immediately and passionately call McCain and Palin to not just stop inciting mobs, but to tell the mobs that threats are unacceptable.
The McCain camp has demonstrated that the only people they care to represent are those who've never read a book, including the Bible. You can't whip intelligent people into a racist frenzy. I'm waiting for them to decide to kill everyone who wears glasses.
I love that Palin is married to a secessionist and that this secessionist party hailed the election of Sarah Palin as governor as a model of infiltrating the mainstream by pretending to be Republicans, yet the drooling idiots of the GOP are up in arms over the fact that Obama once worked on a Republican-funded charitable board with a 60's radical.
I'm pretty sure that if Michelle Obama were a member of a secessionist party 10 years ago, Obama's candidacy would have been over long ago. Damn that liberal media.
I am terrified for Obama's safety, and I would feel better about it were it not for the fact that Secret Service protection is inherently inadequate. I appreciate that they are a fine and brave bunch, but all you have to do is attend a single political event to see how easy it would be to get close enough to a candidate to have at least some chance of succeeding in an attack. A few agents simply cannot preclude this, which is all the more resason why the revolting fevers being stirred up by McCain/Palin are so dangerous. Years ago JFK mused that if an assassin was willing to exchange his life for Kennedy's there was nothing that could be done to prevent it. That's still true, and the GOP must rein in the kind of rhetoric that, in the minds of a lone nut ("he's a terrorist!") justifies mad action.
TNC, you hit it right on the head, brother. But let's not lose focus on what's really important. Barack is a big boy and a professional politician. He is surrounded by probably the best security detail in the world. That doesn't mean he's 100% safe, but it does give him a good amount of security.
The trouble here is for Sasha and Malia. If something happens to Barack, they will grow up without a father. Where will all those social conservatives who bemoan gay adoption because of the "natural order" of the family unit be then, huh? This is precisely why I don't vote Republican. Democrats do a lot of stupid shit, too, but as somebody else above mentioned, you didn't hear this kind of flack from most Hillary supporters; and Hillary came out strongly against the kind of rhetoric in which McCain and Palin are no complicit. And complicity is just as bad as overt racism.
Let's think about something here- at one point in the death throes of her campaign, Hillary said something similar to the comments being here ("I'm staying in, 'just in case'") That didn't last long and neither did she.
foo Whatever that means! Linking Obama to Ayres isn't racist in and of itself. BUT, taken together with the "Hussein", "bloodlines", "terrorist" and "kill him" statements, the whole message is clear: He is not White enough, Christian enough, patriotic enough.
BTW, this is a double-edged sword for McCain because Palin's "associations" with the AIP are far more substantial than anything Obama had with Ayres. Perhaps the evil left wing press should stop giving her a pass on this "palling around".
"...McCain and Palin should be at the top of the list of those to be held accountable."
What exactly does being held accountable mean in this context? It means nothing. There are no consequences attached to this accountability.
You say: 'When the McCain campaign cast the spell of diabolical jingoism, they have no idea of the forces they are toying with. '
I'm starting to think that they know EXACTLY what they're 'toying' with.
I'm starting to think that in his insane ambition to become president, McCain actually WANTS something to happen to Obama.
Some people still think that McCain is honorable and ethical at heart - I don't think that anymore.
I couldn't bring myself to watch Tuesday's debate after the McCain-Palin Daily Hate rituals. One supporter at one rally called Obama "a terrorist" and another called for his assassination, and McCain and Palin just smiled as their followers boiled with bloodlust and hate.
Perhaps McCain realized that he was playing with fire, because he has backed off from the most extreme rabble rousing. Given America's history of political violence, he needs to take a more responsible role in this campaign.
At the very least, McCain has proven that he is not a leader, and he has no idea what awful things result when you base your campaign on hate and violence.
Nah, This manner of thinking reminds me of people who accuse music or literature of causing an impressionable teen to commit murder; and that's BS too. Some people are simply homicidal and others, like the author invent the reasons.
When I heard the person yell "kill him" at the McCain rally I was reminded of the man that shot and killed members of a Knoxville, Unitarian Church a few months ago because they were "liberals." He was angry at them because he had just lost his food stamps. Obviously, his critical reasoning skills were non-existent since most of the elected officials in Tennessee are Republicans.
This guy said he listened to Hannity, and Limbaugh all the time and that he hated gays and the "liberal movement". People need to watch "Hotel Rawanda" again to remind themselves that certain elements of the mass media can incite people to violence and the us versus them theme that the Republican party has championed, i.e. "elites" versus "joe six pack" is very troubling.
Barack Obama is protected by the secret service but the rest of us liberals are not.
Torouke, where do you get that Ayers tried to kill a lot of people? As far as I can tell after reading the Wikipedia entry, Ayers not only did not kill anybody, but never tried to kill anybody. He and his associates were interested in property damage, and very much did not want to be murderers.
Blowing up property is bad, and I'm not a fan of violence in any form. But it seems to me there's a real distinction between somebody like Ayers (not a murderer) and, say, Timothy McVeigh (a murderer.) The refusal to acknowledge these distinctions, and, indeed, the desire to blur them in order to whip up hysteria, is exactly where the McCain campaign starts to look racist.
Do you really think Obama didn't know it would come to this? The man's been proven precient on a lot of other things, this *can't* be a surprise.
The "bloodlines" thing is particularly cute given that McCain is an Irish name, and the Irish arguably have terrorist bloodlines.
My concern is not that Obama will be assasinated. I believe his secret service detail is fully aware of the dangers. My greatest fear is that these conservative white people will take out their frustrations on innocent people of color they happen across now and especially on election night.
I suspect a city like my old stomping grounds of Atlanta which will be flush with revelers on Peach Tree with an Obama victory. At the same time there will be some very scared and pissed off white people. Mix in alcohol, guns and a sense of helplessness stoked by McCain/Palin rabble-rousing and we've got the table set for disaster.
I'm not trying to be alarmist, but realistic. There is no excuse for anyone to say this can't happen or we didn't see this coming. It is as plain as the nose on your face where this road leads.
This is also the core of the right-wing in America freely showing what they are all about. These rallies, the emotional response, the comments, to report them merely as events happening misses the problem - this is a group of people who accept a Leader, but not a government. They are abetted and comforted by the right-wing media. If Obama is elected they will be ungovernable because they do not accept government, and will certainly not accept government from a "Terrorist." This is the thinking that created domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh, and I predict it will be much worse under Obama, and that we're going to have domestic terror attacks to deal with. The shake out will be if something like that happens, will Limbaugh, Hannity, et. al. condemn such a thing or apologize for it? Remember, this is all about power, and has nothing to do with moral thinking.
I'm sorry, but my spider-sense is tingling and telling me that someone is going to get hurt in all this... I have a bad feeling that someone is going to take a shot at Obama in the not too distant future.
As for how scary this gets, you all owe it to yourself to watch this Video from Crooks and Liars if you can stomach it... these people are really, really frightening and not in the happy halloween sense.
(the link is http://www.crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/palin-mccain-mob if that doesn't work)
I wouldn't count on the Secret Service.
"If history has taught us anything, if anything in this life is certain, it's that you can kill anybody." Michael Corleone.
I grew up in Hyde Park and was Bar Mitzvah in the synagogue across from where the Obamas live now. The night they killed Martin Luther King, I was four years old. I watched the neighborhood just west of mine burning from the back window of my apartment. I pray for Obama's safety in this atmosphere of fear and hatred irresponsibly whipped up by McCain and Palin, not only because I believe Obama will be a great president, but because I fear the fire next time will burn up more than just some neighborhoods on the South Side.
I am hoping this is just the last gasp of a bankrupt political movement that has held our country in its sway for 30 years. I hope on election day, Americans will repudiate it and usher in a new era in our politics.
"We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
McCain and Palin are whipping up intensifying fear and hatred of Obama as the clock ticks down and they grow more desperate. Coupled with the escalating fear many are feeling with the financial meltdown, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this led to violence.
I heard TV clips today of McCain speaking at a rally while a supporter yelled that Obama was a terrorist, and a Palin rally somebody was shouting "Kill him!" Neither speaker stopped to repudiate those comments or discourage them.
Put a gun in the hand of a right-wing nut who just lost his home and let him hear McCain/Palin strongly imply that Obama is a Manchurian candidate who hates the US. Mix well.
These tactics are the equivalent of poisoning the water supply. They can't win, so they'll make destroy, and divide and make the political/social environment so toxic...
McCain is a disgrace.
In the middle of the worst economic crisis in McCain's lifetime, in the middle of two wars, at the first edge of a devastating global climate change--his campaign continuously goes out of its way to make everybody in the damn country on edge and pissed off.
Imagine the carnage in the ghettos of LA, Baltimore, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, and other black meccas if Obama does not win?! Who will be to blame for the looting, fires and deaths there? It may make the Rodney King riots look like a day at the beach.
Very well said indeed. The communist/terrorist parallel has disturbed me for quite some time, and you present it quite succinctly.
While it's something I've pondered before, I can't quite put my finger on exactly why we (ie people in general) need an enemy. We need evil, personal persecution even. It's somewhat frightening, because in the absence of anything tangible (not to suggest we don't have enemies now, but certainly not on the scale we're surmising), we inevitably begin seeing enemies where no enemies exist.
We seem never to learn from the terrors of Salem...
As I said on DKos, enough. I'm fucking tired of liberals turning the other cheek while conservatives beat them up or kill them.
If something happens to Obama because of this I am done playing nice.
MikeF, I look forward to your agreement when the Wright stuff comes out, as it inevitably will as Obama pulls away in the polls.
Meh. A few people, out of 1000's, yell some retarded shit. It's not even a story.
The logic by which the republicans are using{if you can call it that}Would mean the University of Chicago is a terror training ground and illinois is a terrorist state because it gave Ayers citizen of the year award once.The Annenberges are not only terror sympathizers but funders!!Monkeys who throw feces wind up looking like monkeys who throw feces.Unfortunately,While the rest of the sane world laughs at this line of reasoning the appeal for crazies goes on.For instance over at powerline they are pushing obvious lies and halve truths with pictures of hitler and stalin.If one were a patriotic american AND believed these ignorant rants ,were unbalanced{which most seem to be};if you believed Obama to be an actual THREAT to your nation,what would you do?
I suppose if you're not gay, you can see the Falwells, Robertsons, and Roves of the world as "ignorant" because they seem to toy with dangerous ideas without really "going there". You can imagine that they're just not aware of what lies further down the road of bigotry and lies they walk. But if you're gay or informed on gay-rights issues, you KNOW they "go there" all the time and you KNOW they know where they're doing.
Why isn't their racism as open? Because the time's not right. Yet.
Poster TSM said..."We sort of forget that "domestic terrorism" appeared in rather spectacular form during the Clinton administration. Tim McVeigh wasn't just blowing up stuff--he was blowing up the "federal government" (in the form of red state babies, apparently). And people weren't even calling Bill Clinton a terrorist."
Let's get the record straight, please... domestic terror did not start with the Clinton administration. America has a LONG history of domestic terror from the right and left, but most of the racial terror was from the right. The KKK and neo-Nazi movements were violent terror organizations that were often supported by mainstream politicos. The KKK emerged during Reconstruction, neo-Nazi's in the late 1950s.
The KKK has had a long history of terrorism, against Blacks, Catholics, Jews. They were aided and abetted by far too many politicians, policemen and ministers.
The 1960s were bloody testaments to America's domestic terrorists who killed and beat civil rights protesters and activists with a great deal of impunity. Bus bombings and burnings, kidnappings, lynchings, church bombings, shootings... all in an effort to suppress the civil rights movement. And that was followed during Vietnam, by act of violence from groups on the left.
But the point is correct, these things do not take place in isolation. Too often they are sanctioned by the words and actions of "responsible" leaders. The McCain campaign does know the power of division and anger, but they may not fully appreciate how close to the surface that racial violence lies for some segments of our society
I am so scared of where this election is going. The trashing of Obama is absolutely, positively disgusting, it has such a bad edge. I am afraid some whacko is going to come out of the woodwork and do something that we will regret.. The hatred that is being spewed by the so called "pit bulls" is beyond just campaigning and these pit bulls should be ashamed of themselves, and yes they should be called on the carpet.. We are supposed to be Americans, red white and blue... Huh. Right now our economy is in a shambles, it that not enough to talk about...
GOP is all about certainity. Life begins at conception and Obamas career was launched at Ayers house ... anybody who is not a GOP sympathiser is a terrorist.
But, in this case they are overreaching.. or are they ?
The Republicans have been using these same tactics against Gays $ Lesbians for years, and ya'll are only just now seeing how dangerous it is for the groups targeted? Talk about walking around with blinders on...
999,000 out of a million? How about 999 out of one thousand.
Posted by David | October 9, 2008 9:56 AM
Those are the same odds. I'm being nit-picky but the devil is in the details. We can blame Andrew for not putting 999,999 out of a million in his post but I think the spirit of your post it right. 99 out of a hundred may be even closer.
Political violence is alive and well in many parts of the world, including here in the US (Oklahoma City).
I think its despicable McCain and Co. are so willfully ignorant of this nation's very long history of racially motivated political violence.
Or wait...was McCain in prison in 1968? I guess being POW excuses you from all other considerations.
Is it not possible that when the Palin audience member said "Kill him!", that audience member was using the kind of language that one might use at a football game? At a high school pep rally, for example, a poster might read "Kill the Cougars;" that doesn't literally mean to kill the team members or to go on safari. It's figurative. Lighten up people.
foo Huh, What? Scare tactics? If McCain is using scare tactics to get into office, let everyone know. And then tell them that Obama's Cult is as well! Who wants a hate monger that points out someones past relations with questionable people, when you can point fingers at people in the crowd who yell things out in protest of this person.
Who is the bigger racist, the person that doesn't say anything about such accusations, or the individuals that cry racism everytime something unfavorable to their candidate is pointed out?
I guess it's really a toss up. I'll vote for Obama based on his principles, but you messiah following hacks are really just as bad as McCain's followers. They cry out protesting you cry out racist, they talk about his gun control you cry out racist, they talk about him "funding" his wife's hospital while she gets a $200k raise, you yell racist. We get it, he's black, we get it, McCain's old, both sides are doing the exact same judging and both sides fail to see it.
It's hilarious how we all really know that no matter who gets in, they won't follow any of their promises now, they'll do what their special interest groups want. But we still insist on believing our candidate is the best for the position becaues of the lies he tells in running for office. You can't make this stuff up! Knee slapper this country is.
I was telling my friends the other day that one of the things America has always been good at is avoiding political violence. We have a history of racial violence and even religious violence, but political violence has always been far in our background and almost never manifest.
What scares me most is that Palin's tack is to make political disagreement into the kind of cultural opposition that makes a violent response possible.
You're right.
It's incredible to me that the McCain campaign would sink this low. I shouldn't be surprised, because this is the Republican party we're talking about, and it's just gotten worse and worse in my lifetime.
I guess the illusion that John McCain worked so hard to create during the first 30 years of his political career -- that he was somehow above the down-and-dirty realities of American politics -- has been completely shattered now, and he's left looking like an angry, self-centered, spoiled powermonger who will do anything to either achieve the highest office in the land or leave a path of death and destruction in his wake.
"The saddest thing about many Republicans isn't just that they disagree with liberals on race--it's they are largely ignorant on race.
I hate to break it to you, despite a willingness to vote for a black guy for president, I find the same is true about Democrats and other so-called 'liberals' in this country.
The tragedy is this has already occured at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville earlier this summer. The right wing wants to disavow their responsibility but they have some.
The right wing talks about liberals as communists and even makes comments about killing liberals. A UU church is certainly going to be populated by liberals so it is a good location to go hunting.
Hanging out with a white guy who once tried to kill a lot people is fine
Actually Ayers didn't try to kill people. He tried to blow up buildings, and tried to ensure that no people were hurt. There's one bombing back there I remember in which a night janitor was accidently killed, but I don't know if Ayers was involved with that. In any case, Ayer's form of "terrorism" was not directed at people, but at government property. So it's quite different from the modern form of terrorism which tries to kill a lot of innocent people. Not that this makes it acceptable, but there's a big difference there nonetheless.
Re: torourke
> "Hanging out with a white guy who once tried to kill a lot people > is fine, but pointing it out is racist."
Not sure what a "lot people" is, and to be clear, despite undeniably violent acts by the Weathermen, they never tried to kill anyone. But to answer your question, yes! Hanging out (by which we mean serving on the chicago school board and accepting campaign fundraising from) a white guy, who 20 years prior to said interactions violently and passionately stood up to an administration that was taking unprecedented steps (at that point anyway) to scrap democratic values IS MORE THAN FINE! I, for one, find it comforting.
And to answer your other question... YES! McCain-Palin's portrayal of Obama as a terrorist sympathizer (and more subtly rehashing the line that he is secretly a muslim), and allowing hateful outbursts from the audience at their rallies without making any attempt to step in and curb this hysteria, is racist. Indeed, the very nomination of Palin is on its face a racist attempt to play on peoples very worst racist impulses to protect an attractive white woman from a black man. If McCain just wanted a woman to steal the Hillary votes, he could have had Condy, who would, by the way, have been an excellent candidate and probably would have ripped Biden a new one at their debate. But instead, McCain chose the bumbling white idiot Palin as a last ditch effort to hate-monger his way into November.
There's one bombing back there I remember in which a night janitor was accidently killed, but I don't know if Ayers was involved with that. In any case, Ayer's form of "terrorism" was not directed at people, but at government property.
That's like arguing that a stinking drunk, driving with a .3 BAC, on a suspended license should be forgiven for "accidentally" running down a pedestrian. Or defending Guevera's sick, perverted bloodthirst as his "just being cautious."
But it's beside the point, anyway.
Coates is completely correct that McCain is riling up forces he can't control and doesn't understand. Good thing his bailout vote already put me on the Bobar bandwagon.
Thanks for writing this. It seems like everyone is dancing around this issue (WaPo, NYT, etc...), and it is good to see someone come right out and connect the dots about what, exactly, all the crazy calls of "terrorist" and "traitor" mean. However, from a historical perspective, I do feel the need to point out that there was a strong belief in the government in the time of MLK that communists were involved in many of the leftist and racial equality movements of the day. This has since been proven to be incorrect, but was the common belief among at the White House, the FBI and in Congress. Of course, this belief, in and of itself, by no means justifies assassination or threats of violence (nothing could) at the time. I don't know how sincere or serious people took this threat, but it was on the radar of the gov't. There was at least some (semi) legitimate concern that communists were infiltrating leftist movements. Of course, this was amplified by the far-right at the time. Can anyone even seriously argue the same about the insane charges from the McCain campaign? McCain's charges are far worse because they are even more divorced from reality.
Its possible that not everyone at these rallies is quite so extreme or hateful. But, even a small percentage of people this bigoted is pretty scary. And how might they react if a "terrorist lover" is elected president? This "mob mentality" McCain and Palin are creating might linger long after election day. Combine this with the losses the GOP faces in congressional races in November, and some of the loonys might just be pushed over the edge...
Obama might want to improve his security.
Conservatives have been playing this card for over 40 years and now after these same nut-jobs have killed Planned Parenthood Doctors and gays now everybody realizes the danger this country's in please and give me a break Americans have always known that the Republican party has played racialist politcs.
And Since Obama is coming closer maybe to a resounding victory (i thought he would lose) the raqcist neanderthals are coming out of the woodwork. I would tell every law abiding African- American to learn how to use a gun and to defend yourself by any means against this type of oppression that will surely be coming.I won't start racial violence but if any of those Republican nutjobs come at me I will send them st8 to the cemetary so they could meet Ronald Reagan, John Wayne and Uncle Ruckus in White Heaven.
Hang on, hang on: "communism = terrorism"? WTF? Surely you don't really believe that, do you? If so, you're just as bad as any racist, or any one trying to tar Obama with the terrorist tag.
For anyone who doesn't know but is willing to think for themselves, communism is simply a political system. It's not evil bred in the bone, like some of you seem to think, it's just politics. And, unlike, say, global capitalism, communist nations rarely attempt to force their system on others.
And before you all pile on - yes, I know of the Long March. Yes, I know that many communist (or supposedly communist) systems have been repressive or brutal. But that's not unique to communism - find me a political system that hasn't had at least one bad example.
Sheesh, it's alarming to read people, apparently intelligent and educated, spouting this ignorant fear-mongering.
Surely Sarah Palin's six-year-old is at home wondering why everyone either adores her mommy or hates her. I wonder how Sarah Palin explains all this to her.
Maybe she says, "Now sweetie, understand death threats are grown-up words. I don't want to hear you making them."
Or, "Jesus says its OK to threaten people you don't like."
Or, "Always remember, it isn't how you play the game, it's whether you win that counts."
Or, "It's OK to stretch the truth about other people if you don't like them."
Or, "It's OK for mommy to abuse the privileges of her office and lie about it because Uncle Wooten is a bad, bad man. Swee'pea, it's OK to lie, if you're lying for justice."
foo-boy. You'd think the U.S., of all nations, would remember what racially motivated violence cost the nation. In England (and thence Canada) religion was always the great divider and the source of bloodshed, and it's well remembered now.
Though I will say that this is just silly:
We got Commies running for office up here right now, and frankly they've never done any harm here, because maybe 100 people a district bother voting for them.
Foo
After hearing McCain's "plea" for respectability!??! to his gathering yesterday....almost with true remorse and being humble....will this stop Palin from continuing her attacks? Does she possess enough respect for her running partner to cease? Will McCain demand that she "shut her whiny trap"? Unfortunately, the seed has been planted and those idiots who so verbally spoke their minds, hiding in the crowd, won't. But I have faith in those of us who do see the obvious to rise and conquer. Let's see to it that this Republican campaign forever parish in their own muck. I would think that it's hard to breath when you are upside down in the devil's sludge, and he will expect their souls in payment.
Foo
P.S. I don't believe even the "Witchdoctor" can save them now!
I am surprised at how many people are ok with the most extreme left strand of the Democratic party taking control of the country. Obama winning can be likened to the evangelical right wing of the Republican party taking control. A country becomes poorer and poorer under socialism, till eventually it is destitute. We are so socialistic now, even with Republicans in power, that Obama's push will certainly get us there quickly. I hope all of you are happy being serfs. McCain is at least a chance for the battered flag of capitalism in this country to fly a few more years. Its amazing to me that China is now more capitalist that we are.
Also, is Andrew a citizen?
Re: . In England (and thence Canada) religion was always the great divider and the source of bloodshed, and it's well remembered now.
England, yes, though you have to go back to the Tudors and Stuarts for examples (exception, an anti-Catholic riot under George III, whose idiotic actions provoked it-- he wasn't just an dumbass about the 13 colonies). But religious violence in Canada? I think there's been more of it in the US, our anti-Mormon lynchings for example.
Jerry:
You have no idea what socialism is, do you? It's just a boogyman word to you, and little else. Pretty much every European nation is socialist, as is Canada. These are destitute? Democracy is the most important indicator of wealth (though not the only one).
JonF:
Sorry if I was unclear: the memory of religious violence is very, very clear in England, and that memory carried over into Canada even during colonization. As such, we (and the English) are VERY touchy about politicians trying to bring religion into government. I was commenting on how little religious violence there has been here, in my own stammering way.
My 74 year old mother is very liberal. She grew up in the segregated South, but was active in the Civil Rights Movement. She is white. She saw Barack Obama speak 4 years ago at the Democratic National Convention and she said to herself, "That's my guy! If he ever runs, I'm voting for him." She has been worried that something might happen to him all along, but now she really is worried that someone might try to hurt him. John McCain and especially Sarah Palin should be ashamed of themselves.
To all the folks claiming that Ayers did not intend to hurt anyone, I present the following evidence from Andy McCarthy:
"In his autobiography, Fugitive Days: A Memoir, Ayers recalled, he posed the question: “How far are you willing to take that step into what I consider the abyss of violence? And we really never did, except for that moment in the townhouse.… I actually think destroying property in the face of that kind of catastrophe is so — restrained. And I don’t see it as a big deal.
Right.
First of all, "that moment in the townhouse" he's talking about happened in 1970. Three of his confederates, including his then girlfriend Diana Oughton, were accidentally killed when the explosive they were building to Ayers specifications (Ayers was a bomb designer) went off during construction. As noted in Ayers' Discover the Networks profile, the explosive had been a nail bomb. Back when Ayers was being more honest about his intentions, he admitted that the purpose of that bomb had been to murder United States soldiers:
That bomb had been intended for detonation at a dance that was to be attended by army soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Hundreds of lives could have been lost had the plan been successfully executed. Ayers attested that the bomb would have done serious damage, "tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people too."
In fact, Ayers was a founder of the Weatherman terror group and he defined its purpose as carrying out murder. Again, from Discover the Networks:
Characterizing Weatherman as "an American Red Army," Ayers summed up the organization's ideology as follows: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents."
Now he wants you to think they just wanted to break a few dishes. But in his book Fugitive Days, in which he boasts that he "participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972," he says of the day that he bombed the Pentagon: "Everything was absolutely ideal. ... The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them."
And he wasn't singular. As I noted back in April in this article about Obama's motley collection of radical friends, at the Weatherman “War Council” meeting in 1969, Ayers' fellow terrorist and now-wife, Bernadine Dohrn, famously gushed over the barbaric Manson Family murders of the pregnant actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and three others: “Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim’s stomach! Wild!” And as Jonah recalled yesterday, "In appreciation, her Weather Underground cell made a three-fingered 'fork' gesture its official salute." They weren't talking about scratching up the wall-paper.
A Weatherman affiliate group which called itself "the Family" colluded with the Black Liberation Army in the 1981 Brinks robbery in which two police officers and an armed guard were murdered. (Obama would like people to believe all this terrorist activity ended in 1969 when he was eight years old. In fact, it continued well into the eighties.) Afterwards, like Ayers and Dohrn, their friend and fellow terrorist Susan Rosenberg became a fugitive.
On November 29, 1984, Rosenberg and a co-conspirator, Timothy Blunk, were finally apprehended in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. At the time, they were actively planning an unspeakable bombing campaign that would have put at risk the lives of countless innocent people. They also possessed twelve assorted guns (including an Uzi 9 mm. semi-automatic rifle and an Ithaca twelve-gauge shotgun with its barrel sawed off), nearly 200 sticks of dynamite, more than 100 sticks of DuPont Trovex (a high explosive), a wide array of blasting agents and caps, batteries, and switches for explosive devices. Arrayed in disguises and offering multiple false identities to arresting officers, the pair also maintained hundreds of false identification documents, including FBI and DEA badges.
When she was sentenced to 58 years' imprisonment in 1985, the only remorse Rosenberg expressed was over the fact that she and Blunk had allowed themselves to be captured rather than fighting it out with the police. Bernadine Dohrn was jailed for contempt when she refused to testify against Rosenberg. Not to worry, though. On his last day in office, the last Democrat president, Bill Clinton, pardoned Rosenberg — commuting her 58-year sentence to time-served.
These savages wanted to kill massively. That they killed only a few people owes to our luck and their incompetence, not design. They and the Democrat politicians who now befriend and serve them can rationalize that all they want. But those are the facts."
So Bill Ayers was part of a group that wanted to bomb a dance attended by soldiers at Fort Dix, using designs that Ayers himself drew up. Bill Ayers admitted that the nail bomb that was constructed was designed to tear through people too, as his former comrades learned the hard way. His own summary of the goals of his group were to kill rich people and kill their own parents. His wife, and fellow host of the party that launched Obama's political career, celebrated the deaths of the Manson group's victims. But they just wanted to destroy some property right?
How come the others on the board with Obama and Ayers are not coming under attack?
How come the university that hired Ayers and placed him in a position to shape yooung minds is not under fire?
Why isn't the legal system that does have Ayers incarcerated being criticized?
McCain may not be Bush, but he running a close second. Arousing hate mongers is a very dangerous business. McCain will not be able to throw rocks and hide his hands if something happens to Senator Obama. He and Palin are providing the impetus for disaster and their campaign will be seen as the catalyst for any negative action that comes out of their inciting hate.