You don’t have to support John McCain or Sarah Palin to write to them. You don’t have to be a Democrat to have a problem with hateful anti-Obama rhetoric being spewed by McCain supporters. Write, call, email, blog… make your voice heard by the Republican Party and the McCain campaign. Demand that John McCain and Sarah Palin take an immediate and public stand against the toxic tone of their campaign’s destructive, deceitful language. Am I the only person who is scared shitless about where this will lead? Let me answer that for you, NO!
In the most blunt terms imaginable, Republican author Frank Schaeffer called upon McCain in an October 10th Baltimore Sun Op-Ed piece to take a stand against the ugly and false statements about Barack Obama:
If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as “not one of us,” I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence…
Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.
John McCain, you’re walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out “Terrorist” or “Kill him,” history will hold you responsible for all that follows.
John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.
So what are you going to do? You read my stupid blog, now go do something else. I don’t care who you support in this election, take a stand against this anti-Obama garbage. It sounds like it is straight out of a KKK handbook and it is seriously freaking me out.
Here are some links to help you out (uh, don’t contribute, just complain):
achievement_gap's Weblog 
So McCain can’t question Obama because of people’s racial sensitivities? How about Obama supporters going to a Palin rally wearing “Sarah Palin Is C**T” teeshirts?
I don’t hear the MSM crying that Obama is – once again – inciting sexism and misogyny.
McCain won’t do this.. if he would it wouldn’t happen in the first place.
Not to mention that’s just a Rovian tactic.. make false claims and then say you denounce them… too late it’s already out there. For example.. how many idiots in this country think Obama’s an Islamofascist terrorist? Too many.
And jonolan… Sarah Palin does JUST fine on her own inciting sexism and misogyny. Everytime she winks at me.
jonolan,
Don’t be a jackass. I’ve read your blog, and you’re not that stupid.
I’m not talking about “questioning Obama.” I am talking about McCain supporters standing up at political rallies saying things like “I can’t trust Obama, he’s an Arab,” “kill him” (in reference to Obama), and “Bomb Obama” to name just a few. This is not questioning, this is not even a matter of freedom of speech… I’m not an expert on the issue but I suspect it borders on incitement to riot. Some noted Republicans are calling for McCain and Palin to take a stand against this dangerous rhetoric as well.
I did not know someone wore a “Sarah Palin is a Cunt” t-shirt to a Palin rally. I’d say that is pretty much akin to the gentleman who brought a stuffed monkey with an Obama sticker on it to a rally – insanely below the level of discussion we need to be having. Not to mention immature, racist/sexist and in many other ways deplorable.
There is one notable difference between the monkey/t-shirt class of protestor and the verbal attacks I mentioned above. The t-shirt did not call for violence against Governor Palin. I can’t stand the woman, but I would never urge anyone to bomb her, kill her, or call her a Nazi, or tolerate it being said in my presence. Can’t you see where this will lead? Or do you just not care?
achievementgap,
McCain has denounced various unfounded anti-Obama rhetoric and neither he nor Palin nor the GOP in general – there HAVE been exceptions – have ever brought race into this election.
What do you want? McCain and Palin have legitimately questioned Obama’s character based on his associations with domestic terrorists. A very few people in the audience responded angrily and the press – deep in the Obama camp – jump on it and made a big story of it.
So it comes back to we e can’t question Obama because he’s Black.
Well, again, I’m not speaking about questioning Obama. I frankly don’t care what he’s asked. He’s running for president. If he can’t answer questions and quell suspicions he’s not prepared for the job.
I’m talking specifically about racist, violent rhetoric from McCain’s supporters. And what I want is for McCain to stop, mid-speech, and say he won’t tolerate it. If he does nothing or responds in a weak way, it creates the impression that he condones statements like “kill Obama.” This message of tolerance is then televised nationally to a pissed off, exhausted, disenfranchised country with a really strong history of racism and assassination. Is there a moral obligation here? I kind of think there is.
Anyway, I read a lot of your blog archives today. I found myself alternately pissed off, amused, impressed… what you have to say, you say really well even when I totally disagree. Also… totally got the DOMA humor. Not sure what people missed about it. Very funny. Thanks for the comments on my post.
As someone who lived through the turbulence of the struggle for civil rights, I’m horrified at the tone McCain and Palin have taken of late and of the hatred evinced by some of their supporters. I’ve lived through political assassinations and seen what they do to a country. I’ve written to the campaign and called them out. For a campaign that claims to put “Country First” and a candidate who claims to revere honor, McCain is showing himself to be driven far more by personal ambition.
The next president will need the goodwill of people beyond his base to lead. McCain may be shoring up his, but the cost to the country may be incalculable.