by Teh Nutroots| You know what's effing crazy? The fact that McCain, the muppets at The Corner and other formerly respectable bastions of the right, have forgotten that before
911 there was the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh, and a hell of a scary movement among paramilitary anti-government white supremacist militias to bring down the US government.
It's time to demand that Palin and McCain step up and issue a global retraction of their incendiary implications---and outright misreprentations--about President-Elect Obama. After noting the angry shouts and mutterings that characterized many of her rallies, Tim Shipman of The Telegraph reports:
[I]t has now emerged that [Palin's] demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.
The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks. (The Telegraph)
So much for Palin's vaunted "family values" and the good hearts of all the "real Americans" who were attending her rallies.
It seems Michelle Obama was rather upset by having her family threatened. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" she cried.(The Telegraph)
We all know that the ATF recently foiled one seriously scary plan by white supremacists to murder Obama (along with a large number of high school students).
Unsurprisingly, the McCain's campaign shameful---and successful---attempt to convince very stupid people that Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist as well as black has given the deranged racists out there in "real America" the idea that they might be justified in doing him harm.
Details of the spike in threats to Mr Obama come as a report last week by security and intelligence analysts Stratfor, warned that he is a high risk target for racist gunmen. It concluded: "Two plots to assassinate Obama were broken up during the campaign season, and several more remain under investigation. We would expect federal authorities to uncover many more plots to attack the president that have been hatched by white supremacist ideologues."
Irate John McCain aides, who blame Mrs Palin for losing the election, claim Mrs Palin took it upon herself to question Mr Obama's patriotism, before the line of attack had been cleared by Mr McCain. (The Telegraph)
It's actually not surprising, when you think about it, that Palin's attempts to scare the bejesus out of the rather dim but heavily-armed people who attended her rallies might actually incite some of them to violence. Nor is it unfair to hold Sarah Palin accountable for her role in inciting the less balanced among her supporters to violence against "terrorist" "sympathizer" Barack Hussein Obama. (The Telegraph) What else were they doing, or thinking they were doing, when they pretended that an acquaintance with Ayers made Obama a terrorist?
You know what, I don't give a damn about her clothes or the fact that she is geographically and historically and theologically challenged.
But what she---on McCain's watch, whether or not with his knowledge---tried to do to Obama was evil and dangerous. And the danger didn't evaporate when the campaign ended.
As the first African-American president in history, Obama was always at risk. What was the McCain campaign doing, or thinking they were doing, when they set about trying to scare people into voting against him?
Looking back, I am astonished at the comparative lack of outrage and the unwillingness of the media to call her and McCain out for their hate-mongering and race-baiting.
Thinking about it now that the shouting's died down, it seems more--not less--outrageous. That's because it is an outrage.
I am outraged. The Secret Service links a continued threat directly to Sarah Palin.
Erin Kotcki Vest says:
[T]hese two 'honorable' mavericks ended their campaign by rallying the fringe portion of their party that lives on death, destruction, and imposing their way on the world at all cost....
They had to go that extra mile and question the very core of exactly what their base was afraid of: who is this black man, with an arab middle name, and could he be the enemy?...
The fringe whackos who should never end up front and center ended up on every front page, all over YouTube and infecting other Americans with their ignorant and embarrassing rhetoric.
Yes, the legacy of McCain-Palin is now an empowered contingent of this country arming themselves, spreading their lies, and genuinely afraid of the black man in office- because their hero Sarah told them it was OK.
Congrats Mavericks, your plan worked. Now your legacy will forever be tangled in hate, stupidity, and America at her absolute worst.
In October, Frank Schaffer wrote an open letter to the McCain camp in The Baltimore Sun. In pertinent part, it reads:
John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post- 9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.
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....
We will hold you responsible. [emphasis added]
We will---along with a number of angry, bloviating nutters of the blogosphere who aided and abetted them by shit-stirring and rumor-mongering.
We all saw McCain administer a mild rebuke to an elderly lady at one of his rallies who was convinced Obama was a Muslim, but I don't think anyone is under any illusions that the pit bull was similarly restrained. There is no question in my mind---and I am positive that further evidence will be forthcoming---that Palin was playing on the racial fears of the people who attended her rallies. I don't know if it was intentional---she really might not know any better.
But if it wasn't intentional, it was reckless. She needs to do her part, as the new heroine of the right-wing, to calm people down.
We saw Ashley Todd, a girl of 20, directly attempt to incite racial fears as a means of assisting McCain. Anyone who cared to could see even "respectable" right-leaning blogs such as the National Review crazily insisting on Obama's "terrorist" sympathies. Their ugly and incendiary tone hasn't changed. The ugly tone of the crowd who were present for McCain's concession speech was unlike any I have ever heard in my lifetime and I think McCain himself was disconcerted by it.
So yeah---McCain and Palin need to take this on.
The concession speech was a start, but it's going to take more than one speech to vitiate the atmosphere of fear and hatred those two clowns stirred up among some of the least rational members of the Republican's beloved "base."
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This a blatant underhanded effort to intimidate and muzzle Sarah Palin by Obama's fascist thugs. I am confident that this will backfire and Governor Palin will continue to speak out frequently and even more forcefully against the Obama regime, and that her message will resonate with ever larger numbers of patriotic Americans.
Posted by: nabalzbbfr | November 09, 2008 at 09:09 AM
nabalzbbfr,
You would the reasons Palin needs to step up and retract her lies.
If you think Obama is a fascist, you either don't know any history or---like your heroine--are deliberately distorting the facts.
I suspect a combination of both.
No one will "muzzle" Palin. If she's a decent person, she will want to do the right thing. And I am confident---since she has political ambitions---that she will.
She will acknowledge that she was exaggerating and twisting the facts. And people like you will talk yourself into believing she was "muzzled" or forced to do the right thing.
So it won't do any good---which is why it was so wrong of her to do it in the first place.
Finally, you silly person, it was a BRITISH CONSERVATIVE paper that broke the story---one that hasn't been extremely friendly to Obama. Obama and his people couldn't have had anything to do with it.
Posted by: Teh Nutroots | November 09, 2008 at 01:30 PM