About the “terrorist,” “Muslim,” “communist,” “kill him” chants, the racist and bigoted anti-Obama e-mail smear campaigns, and the hate-crime-inciting Obama-and-a-noose graphics is that this level of disrespect and public hatred is being spewed at a sitting United States senator. Please name one other United States senator that people have chanted “kill him” or “kill her” about.
Some conservatives will rightly point out that some liberals — and I’ll bet some conservatives too — have called George W. Bush a terrorist. Is the “terrorist” label appropriate for George W. Bush? Probably not, given that terrorists, as understood within political theory, are recognized as individuals or groups that act to intentionally destabilize the existing government or political structure, and that use the tactic of terrorizing — i.e., instilling fear among — the general population to carry out their agendas. By these standards, Bush isn’t a terrorist. However, Bush has been responsible for the nation’s foreign policy for the last 8 years, and it is undeniable that he has neither acknowledged nor taken responsibility for any of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Public denunciation of Bush’s leadership is justified; calling for him to be killed is not. In fact, I’ve only read about calls for George Bush to be killed — or at least, insinuations of such — from protests held by radical factions in Middle Eastern (and perhaps European, but I could be wrong) countries where effigies of George W. Bush are burned.
What can be said about the sitting United States Senator from Illinois that justifies the hate speech directed at him? What justification is there for any American to call for the assissination of a sitting U.S. Senator, let alone a presidential candidate? Have these people no shame? Does John McCain have no shame?
Yes, I get that these people represent an extreme minority of McCain’s supporters, but correct me if I’m wrong that McCain has touted his leadership as a reason to cast your ballot for him. What type of leader lets these hate-filled, vitriolic attacks continue? You’ll excuse me if I don’t find McCain taking the microphone away and saying, “No ma’am, Sen. Obama is a good family man whom I disagree with,” as a resounding renunciation of this behavior. When I see that people in “your camp” are freely spewing racist hatred and religious intolerance, I have the expectation that you — who are asking to be elected to the highest office in our nation, an office that people turn to for leadership and a sense of the national spirit — will take the extraordinary steps necessary to send the message that in America, that is not acceptable.
Remember when Obama delivered his major speech on race relations in America? Why hasn’t John McCain done the same? This is equivalent, especially at this juncture, with more and more publicized invectives popping up. Where is John McCain’s major speech on the melting pot that comprises the great country that he purports to put first? How is he putting the interests of America first by letting this hatred and bigotry continue unabated? Does he really expect me to believe that it’s better for the country to be so bitterly divided? Is he practicing the old medical technique of lancing a boil, hoping all this hatred will spill out, and then the nation will miraculously heal?
To bring it back to a man in a video who said Michelle Obama made Barack say he’s a Christian so he could win the election (really?!? who comes up with this?), I empathize more and more with the Michelle Obama who wasn’t as proud of her country as she was during the Democratic primary, when a black man and a woman were the front-runners for the presidential nomination of a major political party. I’m not very proud to claim those Americans who spew this hatred, and I’m not very proud to claim those who just pass it off as politically charged extremism. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the statements these people make, the impunity with which they deliver them, and the fact that they show no qualms, no shame, and no trepidation about saying this stuff in public.
