Never in the history of the United States was “politics of fear” used to
bring out the worse in people and sow fear in them. And by doing so, John
McCain has created a “lynch mob” mentality among white voters.
McCain unleashed his running mate, Sarah Palin, to attack Barack Obama with
lies and innuendoes. At a Florida rally, the event turned so ugly that it
prompted the Secret Service to investigate an alleged death threat when
someone shouted “Kill him! Kill him!” Others shouted “terrorist” in reaction
to Palin’s inflammatory rhetoric that Obama was palling around with Bill
Ayers — co-founder of the radical Weather Underground in the 1960’s — whom
she called a “domestic terrorist” As Dana Milbank, a Washington Post
columnist, says in his column, “Unleashed, Palin makes a pit bull look
tame.” Yes, indeed. Palin’s vitriolic attacks against Obama have earned her
the moniker “Attack Dog.”
It is interesting to note that Obama was only eight years old when Ayers was
involved in the student unrest in the 1960’s. Today, Ayers has reformed and
is now a respectable professor in the College of Education at the University
of Illinois and holds the title of “Distinguished Professor.”
In an attempt to tone down Palin’s hate-mongering tirades, McCain told a
Minnesota rally, “We want to fight, and I will fight, but we will be
respectful. I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments and I will
respect him.” McCain said further, “I want to be president … but I have to
tell you that he is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared
of as president of the United States.” But the crowd booed him — Sarah had
already turned his supporters into a lynch mob.
Obama, who never digressed from his focus on the country’s worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression 80 years ago, rebuked McCain for preaching
“anger and division.” At an Ohio rally, Obama said, “In the last couple of
days we have seen a barrage of nasty insinuations and attacks and I am sure
we will see much more over the next 25 days.” Indeed, the intensity of
personal attacks against Obama has increased dramatically. At another Palin
rally, a supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African-American camera
man and told him, “Sit down, boy!” — an apparent warning that tells
African-Americans to stay away from McCain rallies.
In his column titled “McCain and Palin’s lynch-mob tactics,” Tod Robberson
said, “It’s increasingly worrying that John McCain and Sarah Palin are
embracing the acceptability of campaign tactics that play to the most racist
and intolerant tendencies among their supporters. John McCain knows that
Barack Obama has no links whatsoever to terrorism, and yet he’s doing
everything he can to create that linkage. And he’s unleashing Sarah Palin to
do his dirty work while McCain claims to be above this condemnable form of
negative campaigning. This is unconscionable, and it shows how desperate
John McCain has become. He promised repeatedly that he wouldn’t campaign
this way. And he said that when politicians campaign that way, it shows how
little vision they have of the future. But most dangerous in this form of
campaigning is that he and Sarah Palin are standing by, with smiles on their
faces, while their supporters yell things like, ‘Kill him!’ in reference to
Obama. They have done nothing to calm down this lynch-mob mentality.
Instead, they are doing everything they can to promote it. John McCain must
make a full-court, public push to stop this ‘kill him’ mentality now.”
These hate-mongering attacks by the McCain campaign started in earnest after
the Vice Presidential Debate two weeks ago; however, I have been receiving
hundreds of hate Obama emails since the primary season from — of all
people! — Filipino-Americans. I received an email from Ed F. titled “More
Family Pictures of the new First Family??” which contains photos of Obama’s
“African heritage.” I received another email from Elena A. titled “Is
America FOR SALE to the Arabs?” which seems to suggest that Obama is an
“Arab” and therefore a Muslim.
I received an email from Thelma E. criticizing support of Obama. She said
that she is not voting for Obama because he is a Muslim. She said that Obama
used the Koran when he took his oath of office as Senator. I replied saying
that there is a picture in the Internet which shows that he used the Bible,
not the Koran.
The other day, I got a call from Celly C. She told me that Obama grew up in
Indonesia and since Indonesia is a Muslim country, therefore Obama is
Muslim. She also said that Obama is linked to terrorists including Libya’s
President Kaddafi. I told her that these statements aren’t true.
I received another email from Jess H.R. which says: “Hi you all!!! Hope you
don’t mind me sharing this open letter with you all which is written by
someone I don’t even know but I truly agree with his opinions about Barack
Obana as a future president of this country. In all my life time here in the
United States, I never thought that there would be a time when I would
really fear for the security of this country. The opinions expressed in this
letter are so much like mine, and also really like my opinions as well. It
is only that the author expressed them better than I can ever do. My mind is
so worried , and my physical being so scared and being so I don’t think I
would be able to delineate those same opinions better myself. Urging you all
therefore to read and give this letter some thought, and decide whether
which of the two candidates have the best interest and serve this country
better.” The open letter that Jess attached to his email was another hate
Obama letter. It has nothing to do with real issues such as the economic
crisis and financial meltdown.
What I found distressing from all the emails I received is that the senders
didn’t seem to care about the real issues. They indulge in “politics of
fear.” As one of my readers said, “I think they’re trying very hard to
out-white the whites, out-conservative the conservatives, and out-Republican
the Republicans.” If that is the case, I feel sorry for them. This election
will be won by the candidate who can convince the voters that he is the one
who can handle the economic problems of the country. And recent polls showed
that a majority of American believed that Obama is the man who can do the
job.
As Bill Clinton said in 1992 when he ran against then President George HW
Bush, “It’s the economy, stupid,” Obama can say the same thing. But this
time around, the economy is worse than it was in 1992.