The Open Village

The dangerous turn the rhetoric has taken on the campaign trail is sure to remind most of us of the ugly stories we have read about lynching of people in the dark days of the creation of the Union. Sarah Palin started us down this dark road and John McCain, as a further evidence of his lack of balls, conscience, self-respect and in spite of all his tough talk, has failed miserably to shown steady leadership. It may be an act of desperation, it may be a reaching for the unknown in terms of turning the downward spiral of the polling numbers, but the danger of stoking racial bigotry and unbridled hatred to the extent that some of McCain’s supporters are calling for Obama’s head is unacceptable in a developed country like ours.

We are a nation that has gone to war in order to bring democracy and freedom to other countries. We have overthrown foreign leaders because we did not like their oppressive governments. We have spent billions of dollars in promoting elections in other countries. Are we now down to this despicable level in our body politic that in an era when the financial systems is on the verge of collapse, when millions of Americans have lost their homes are on the verge of doing so, these right-wing bigots believe that the only way they can win an election is by returning us to the dark days of lynching or tying a black man to the tail-gate of a truck and dragging him across the hate-infested rooms of their ignorant audiences.

This is 2008, and whether you are Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or Asian, a foreclosure does not care. Credit card debts will not ask you for your race. An empty gas tank does not give a hoot whether the car is being driven by an Oriental, Caucasian or African-American. The high prices at the grocery stores could care less if you are the whitest person in the country. When people who should know better deliberately stoke hate and gleefully encourage intolerance, there is a cause for concern. More than anything else, senator McCain and his army of radicals should very well know that Americans do not like being told what to do. We also get pissed off when people lie to us, like John McCain has done for the past twenty-six years and George Bush has constantly done for the past eight years.

Senator John McCain has always boasted about his experience and political independence and it comes as a little bit of a let down as this so-called national hero has tried to play on the suspicions Americans have of Muslims, and people of Middle Eastern descent. By calling Obama “not one of us”, “related to a terrorist”, and other unsavory nonsense, the hope is that people will be scared into voting for the McCain ticket. Now for someone who claims to love this country, is it not the most noble thing to do to let Americans choose the president they want without coercion? By using political tactics that reminds one of politicians in Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau or Eyadema’s Togo, senator McCain diminishes us as a nation. When People claim that senator Obama is as Arab, it is incumbent on senator John McCain to set them straight, not just with a homily about Obama being a decent citizen, but a clear denunciation of such notion that any American of any other than Caucasian is not fit to be president. The question is not whether the hate-mongering is trained on decent people, it is that people are being riled up about “those not like us” - Arabs, African-American and Hispanics especially. The next time such nonsense comes up in his rallies, senator McCain should educate his ignorant followers that only bona fide Americans can run for the office of President of The United States of America. So anyone who is lucky enough to be on a party ticket as nominee is ably qualified to be president whether they be a man, woman, Arab, African-American, Indian, Hispanic, Asian-American, green, yellow, brown, purple, Japanese or even, Chinese.

America deserves more than this. Shame on you senator John McCain and may lightning strike you doubly dead should something untoward happens to Senator Barack Obama because of your hate mongering. We are not responsible for your tortured life and there is no reason why you should try and make us pay for your short-comings. Indeed, as Joe Klein aptly summarized:

Watch the tape of the guy screaming, “He’s a terrorist!” McCain seems to shudder at that, he rolls his eyes… and I thought for a moment he’d admonish the man. But he didn’t. And now he’s selling the Ayers non-story full-time. Yes, yes, it’s all he has. True enough: he no longer has his honor (emphasis mine). But we are on the edge of some real serious craziness here and it would be nice if McCain did the right thing and told his more bloodthirsty supporters to go home and take a cold shower. But McCain hasn’t done the right thing all year (emphasis mine). His campaign is appalling, as the New York Times editorial board said today–and more, it is a national disgrace.

Want to see what a campaign rally that really has something good to offer people look like? Take a look an Obama rally where “the mood in the long lines …is the precise opposite of the surly scenes outside GOP rallies”. A good leader has a way of rubbing off on followers. Have you ever seen Obama supporters yelling racial slurs at supporters of John McCain? Tell me the last time you saw an Obama spokesperson angry. Let me know when you see an Obama adviser yelling at news reporters and journalists. Has Obama ever canceled an interview because he or one of his surrogates was asked a tough question? We can only mask who we really are for so long.