by Cockney Robin| In Britain, Obama's election was greeted with relief, great joy, and a renewal of all the respect for the US (and Americans generally) that the last eight years had eroded.
The following anecdotes in The Telegraph show that there is still a great divide between the enlightened and the marginally evolved. As one of the articles says, "A bigoted backlash against President-elect Barack Obama, America's first black leader, threatens to snuff out the post-election glow of racial progress and harmony."
Certainly it seemed during the campaign that Sarah Palin and John McCain were doing their all to stir up the rage and hatred of the less rational members of their so-called "base"---people of the class known unaffectionately in the UK as "yobs."
In this they were greatly aided by certain of right-wing media personalities. I wonder if conservative media personalities and conservative officials are prepared to take responsibility for any consequences of the hatred and racialist fury they are deliberately inciting? One can't help wondering what it is they want to happen. What do they want?
In light of current developments, their continued behaviour is---as my co-blogger wrote---reckless at best. At worst, it is willful, malicious, and deliberately designed to egg on the loonier sections of their respective audiences.
1. "Sean Hannity, of Fox News radio, who led condemnations of Mr Obama's links with the 1960s terrorist Bill Ayers, has placed on his website a countdown clock, ticking down to the next election when he hopes to be rid of "the radical Barack Obama"."
2. "Rush Limbaugh, the doyen of conservative talk radio hosts, last week blamed Mr Obama for continuing stock market falls: "This is an Obama recession, might turn into a depression," he said. "He hasn't done anything yet, but his ideas are killing the economy.""
3. "John Derbyshire, a columnist with the conservative magazine National Review, dismissed Mr Obama as a "shallow, ignorant, self-obsessed man" and mocked those conservatives "scratching around for shards of optimism - of Hope! - in the general wreckage"."
4. "Republican Congressman Paul Brown denounced Mr Obama as a Marxist, and compared his plans for a national service corps - to help out in natural disasters - to the formation of the Nazi brownshirts.""
5. "A Roman Catholic priest in South Carolina told his parishioners not to seek Holy Communion if they voted for Mr Obama, because supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil" as the President-elect backs abortion rights."
Do these people feel no sense of responsibility for the effect of their fear-mongering and hate-spewing? It's hard to believe that the answer could be "yes"; yet it appears that the answer is "yes." Because we're already seeing a very dark side to the country's heartland.
According to this article, there have been a number of shocking and disgusting incidents just in the last few days.
1. "In Madison County, Idaho, a firmly Republican state, the schools superintendent was obliged to remind teachers and bus drivers that pupils must show proper respect for elected officials, after parents complained that children on one school bus were chanting, "Assassinate Obama!""
2. "In North Carolina, a southern state Mr Obama won on election day, the Statesville Record newspaper had to apologise after running a leader column which asked: "What's more scary, a bleak economy or a black president?""
The Telegraph has published a separate piece on a sharp spike in hate crimes. According to the Southern Policy Law Center, which monitors hate crimes, there has been a shocking upsurge in violent speech and threats against the President-elect and his supporters.
1. "Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that used a racial slur and said he should be shot in the head. Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say." (emphasis added)
2. "In Snellville, Georgia...Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said."
3. "At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."
4. "University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said."
5. ""Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported."
6. "Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, New Jersey, and Apolacan Township, Pennsylvania. Cross burning has been used as an intimidation tactic by white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan."
Let us hope that the Secret Service or the FBI---I don't know which agency has the responsibility---is on top of it and that they'll make the perpetrators sweat a bit.
Reported in the same article are instances of suppression of free expression that are harder to judge. Schools that have quelled discussion of the election might be motivated by the wish to keep order by keeping violent outbursts contained. Even so, it's disturbing that their reaction has been to silence Obama's supporters rather than to stop demonstrations of hate from white students. Even so, it seems the wrong way to go about it.
Here are a couple of examples from the same article.
1. "The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Georgia, said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory."
2. "Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia."
One wonders whether the expression of these disgusting and vile hatreds will be sufficient to discharge it or whether it will simply result in a spread of the infection.
Whatever the answer, those who are keeping them stirred up to further their own careers, private prejudices, or drive for power should be ashamed of themselves.
RELATED BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS
A Roman Catholic Priest to Obama Supporters: No Eucharist for You!
Conservative UK Paper: Secret Service Blames Palin for Death Threats Against Obama
ATF Foils Plot to Kill Obama & Murder 102 Teens at an African-American High School
When I read the story last night about the increase in hate crimes, I was thoroughly disgusted. After reading your post, I became even more so. When people were saying that Obama's win proves that America wasn't a racist country, I was like, "that might be true, but there are still pockets of racism in this country". Apparently, those pockets are pretty deep.
Hannity, Michelle Malkin, and many of the other right-wing cheerleaders have proven that they have no shame in regards to letting their hate/fear mongering spread like wildfire.
Posted by: Malcolm | November 16, 2008 at 11:56 AM
I'm so glad the Brits are still telling the US how to do things. How about Prime Minister Obama while the love fest is still going strong. Two corrects whit your thoughts , here in the US, elected officials are public servants, not leaders and two, Obama is only 25% black, the rest being white and Arab.
Posted by: george waring | December 13, 2008 at 04:04 PM