"Playing with Fire"

"The McCain-Palin ticket has given toxic speeches accusing Obama of being a friend of terrorists, then released short, meek repudiations of some of the rough stuff, including McCain's call Friday to "be respectful." Back in February, the Arizona senator apologized for the "disparaging remarks" from a talk-radio host who sneered repeatedly about "Barack Hussein Obama" before a McCain rally. "We will have a respectful debate," McCain insisted afterward. But pretending to douse flames that you are busy fanning does not qualify as straight talk.

What I find most unconscionable is the refusal of the McCain-Palin tandem to publicly condemn the cries of "traitor," "liar," "terrorist" and (worst of all) "kill him!" that could be heard at recent rallies. McCain is perfectly capable of telling hecklers off. But not once did he or his running mate bother to admonish the people yelling these obscene -- and potentially dangerous -- words. They may not have been able to hear the slurs at the rallies, but surely they have had ample time since to get on camera and warn that this sort of ugliness has no place in an election season. But they have not. Simply calling Obama "a decent person" is not enough. "  Washpost

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Something happened that caused McCain to rebuke a woman at a rally who fumbled in frustration for words and then called Obama an "Arab."  McCain drew back from that and insisted to her that his opponent was a "decent man, a family man, with whom I disagree on some things."  The mob did not like that.  It hissed and cried out in frustration when denied its leader in hatred.  The mob had a right to be confused.  McCain had made no previous objection to this kind of talk.  The mob was puzzled.  Appeals to hatred of the "other" have been occurring at his rallies for a couple of weeks.  Something must have happened to change his attitude.  Did the Secret Service object to this incitement of violence?  Did some saner soul amongst the Republicans object?  Something happened.

The McCain/Palin base is now revealed as essentially nativist and "know nothing."

They howl for Obama's blood.

This is not Conservatism.  Barry Goldwater would be dismayed.

It is now clear that for many people in the United States, foreigners are indistinguishable in their variety.  East Asians, Muslim/Arabs, Africans, Europeans, and Latinos are the groups into which a lot of people sort "the other."  Canadians are generally thought to be shamming their foreignness.

For that woman in the upper Mid-West who fumbled for a word with which to describe Obama, the people who attacked us on 9/11 were Arab/Muslim/Black/terrorists.  For her there are no separate nations or countries in the Middle East and if there were, the differences among them would be unimportant.  For this woman, the idea is unattainable that there could be Arab Christians or a man who is; half black African, half white American, and a Christian.  The fact that he has an Arabic and Muslim middle name but is not an Arab or a Muslim is unapproachable for such people.  People like that are dangerous and there are a lot of them.

Someone will now protest that "Hussein" is a Swahili name.  Yeah?  So what.  Like a lot of words in Swahili it is a loan word from Arabic, as is the word "Swahili"   itself.  "Hussein" is not a Muslim name?  Baloney!  I have been around a lot and have never met anyone with the given name, Hussein, who was not a Muslim, but that does not make Barack Obama a Muslim.  He did not name himself.

And what if he were a Muslim?  What if he were a Jain, or a Sikh or a Baptist?  (The Baptist part was a joke.)

In any event. McCain should get his dogs under control.  He is truly playing with fire.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/10/AR2008101002456.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Comments

[Dunkleosteus]

Note: Obama is "not an Arab, but a decent man, family man." As if being an Arab means one can't be such person.

Juan Cole, who is an expert on Middle East issues, has more on this.

[bstr]

Dear Sir, thank you for this post. You have stated very clearly what the danger of a cultural divde is in our political process.

[lina]

"Something must have happened to change his attitude."

Yeah, like internal polling showing his "unfavorable" numbers on the rise. Plus, the "angry mob" has become the central news story about the McCain campaign. Undecided voters are not going to be swayed his way by mob mentality. It's also possible some Republicans have quietly told McCain if Obama gets assassinated, he'll get blamed AND lose the presidency. Maybe, just maybe, he doesn't want that little item in the first paragraph of his Wikipedia entry.

God bless the Secret Service and the tireless work they do.

And FYI to the McCain campaign hacks: The time to destroy your opponent's character is August, not October.

[J]

Colonel,

If you watch McCain carefully, you will find that McCain drifts in to and out of his progressing Alzheimers. A sad thing to observe in anyone.

[frank durkee]

Since the tactic seems to be that they {Rep.s ] must sow significant doubt about Obama's character in order to have a chance to win, it is doubtful if they will in fact stop. they may alter the focus somewhat. otherwise the race is very possibly over.
Perhaps Acton's dictum "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" needs to have an addendum about the 'drive for power' what this does is take all the coding off the right's
racism and manipulations and expose them to the light.

[fnord]

The worst of it is that it seems pre-meditated. When you study modern communication, you can see the iceberg of rightwing paranoic literature. And McCain/Palin is dipping into that black hole of human spirituality, hate.

[drongo]

General Omar Bradley had an Arabic first name. General Abizaid was ethnic Arab. Senator Mitchell of Northern Ireland fame was Lebanese by descent - an Arab nation.

[ServingPatriot]

COL,

It seems that the fire is already well and truly lit.

And at this point, even if JSMiii made an all out effort to contain it, he'd be as helpless as the guy whose campfire blew into the tinder-dry forest. There's hundreds of years worth of tinder out there in our country and the only apparent "brush clear" comes along when all boats get lifted on the rising tide. Since the end of the 20th Century, the tide has ebbed far and thus, the firefighting will be difficult.

Ultimately, the best fire break will be a very clear and convincing win nationwide on 4 November. But, if it jumps that line, then the nativist/know-nothing/class fire the Palin/McCain/fundie crowd lit might just burn the whole country down. I can't help but wonder if that is just what these secessionist & Darbyists are actually striving for.

SP

[Dana Jone]

One thing I noticed in the so-called debate that I think hasn't been commented on enough: When the Moderator asked the candidates to list their three top priorities, McCain had to write them down and make notes. Obama did not.

This was very telling to me, and to others when I have pointed it out to them.
Or perhaps it was just because it was past McCains bedtime?

[Sidney O. Smith III]

A quote of American tolerance from the 10th President of the US, who considered himself a Democrat-Republican, sheds light on the situation and reflects how our nation perhaps has fallen into arrested development. The president in 1843 reportedly wrote…

“No religious establishment by law exists among us. The conscience is left free from all restraint and each is permitted to worship his Maker after his own judgment. The offices of the Government are open alike to all. No tithes are levied to support an established Hierarchy, nor is the fallible judgment of man set up as the sure and infallible creed of faith. The Mohammedan, if he will to come among us would have the privilege guaranteed to him by the Constitution to worship according to the Koran; and the East Indian might erect a shrine to Brahma if it so pleased him. Such is the spirit of toleration inculcated by our political institutions… The Hebrew persecuted and down trodden in other regions takes up his abode among us with none to make him afraid… and the Aegis of the government is over him to defend and protect him. Such is the great experiment which we have tried, and such are the happy fruits which have resulted from it; our system of free government would be imperfect without it.”

But, alas, with that quote in mind, here is the surprise. President Tyler became a Confederate and led the Peace Conference in 1861.

Life does trick expectations.

And, for the sake of fairness, as George Orwell made clear in Homage to Catalonia, the political left sometimes becomes intolerant themselves from time to time. (oblique allusion to Picasso’s Guernica posted at another thread).

And Paddy Chayefsky, better than anyone, described leftist intolerance brilliantly in the prophetic film, Network. Would the character Diana Christensen, played by Faye Dunaway, rabidly support Obama, if alive today? Me thinks so. Bet she would drive a car with the bumper sticker, Visualize Peace, as well and not think twice that the Democratic Platform, in fact, is racist, if Pappe and Carter are correct in their assessments of Gaza.

That said, I am all but certain I am voting for Obama. Much preferred Colin Powell as our first African American US President back in 96 (and even Andrew Young before him) but much to respect about Obama. Of course, if Tyler is mentioned as the man who brilliantly described the American dream of religious freedom, some Obama voters would probably argue that Tyler should be erased from the collective memory via government law and Democratic political scientists. Stay tuned...

[Paul]

The event you make reference to is perhaps the one that took place in Bethlehem PA. Anyone who has been to (or through) Bethlehem knows that it is a town that is down on its luck and fortune since the steel mills closed several years ago. No doubt the citizens who took part in the rally are hard-working types who have not (and will not) benefitted from inheritance or six figure incomes – if they have incomes at all.

I come from an area that suffered the same fate as Bethlehem. The citizens are decent and beer-drinking workers – the “Joe Sixpack” to whom Palin compares herself. Though I cannot speak to the personal habits of the fine citizens of Bethlehem, their equivalent in my former home town spend their time watching television. They are not a curious lot nor are they habitués of libraries or the internet. Their knowledge comes from television. With apologies to most (if not all of them), they can be classified as STUPID because a vote for McCain is a vote against their interests. They do not realize that the corporations that run the government outsourced their industries and jobs, made health care impossible for those on the low rung of society, and, if given their druthers, would subject Social Security and everything else to the Wall Street casinos.

The common denominator for these afflicted people: they cannot abide blacks even if a black person offers a helping hand! To them, time stands still. They are desperate people who are easily led by false statements and promises.

Very late last evening I had convinced myself to forego a read of the Troopergate report. When sleep escaped me, I started reading and became more alert and pleased. Everyone should read the report in its entirety for they will observe a soap opera that is superior to any ever broadcast. The pettiness and vindictiveness of Ms. Palin and her crew is alarming. The “First Gentleman” is something else; he comes across in this report as incongruent to Alaska’s government as the sound and smell of a fart in church. Imagining VP Palin and the “Second Gentleman” in the corridors of power is frightening.

The best part of the report is unstated: McCain hand-picked her! What was he thinking?

[George Lowry]

When I was in the ninth grade I aspired to a career in photojournalism.

I attended a rally in Pasadena for George Wallace as the American Independent Party
candidate for President.

I spent one semester of high school in suburban Dallas.
There I orbited the outer periphery of a Young Americans for Freedom group.
MY William Ayers moment, ya might say.

I don't recall either of those episodes as being as creepy as some of the video and
audio from the Palin rallies. Maybe our bigots and aspirational fascists were a
better class o' cracker back then.

The Placerville Pinko

[Bobo]

Yes, things are getting heated. But its just politics and the end of long presidential campaign. One side is calling another eratic (they mean he is nuttier than a fruitcake), some on this site are big proponents of this tactic. The other is homing in on the socialist, terrorist, crook side of the game.

Now if we all took a breath and recollect all the names and inuendo that have been used in past campaigns this is mild. Give em a break.

[Will]

Obama's father was of the Luo tribe in Kenya. Ironically that tribe is majority Christian and peaceful. They were not involved in the MauMau uprising against the British.

Omar is the only Arabic name in the "white" English lexicon. In Black America, there are many Arabic names such as Jamal, Karim, etc. I've always wondered how the name of the second Kalif ever became popular. I guess through Muslim Spain?

The slain Medal of Honor winner Navy SEAL Michael Mansour honored at McCain's convention was Lebanese origin.

The trouble w/ Lebanese is some admit to Arab, some claim Phoenician, some Marada. This is even though they were instrumental in coming up with the secular pan-Arab ideology and the Baath party as well as the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party.

Identifying as Arab is like the outer coat, you can wear other inner garments such as Christian, Druze, Sunni, or Shiite. Arab identity means able to speak a common language, having a common culture, values, and literature. It doesn't mean being an ARABIAN. But due to having lost so many wars and having been humiliated and vilified by the Israelis and their lobby for so many years there has been attrition. Many of the Egyptian Copts refuse to be Arabs. Many of Iraki Christians identify as Assyrians and they sport the Eagle of Sargon as their symbol. And then there are the Lebanese Marada (claiming Greek) descent) and the Phoenicians. The results of genetic DNA population studies by National Geographic and others are hotly debated.

Senator Mitchell was doubly Lebanese. His Irish father was an orphan that had been adopted by a Lebanese family. John Abizaid the CENTCOM is not the only famous general. George Joulwan, who was a center at West Point, hence nicknamed the Coach for his football metaphors, was SACEUR. Col. James Jabara was the first American jet ace. I wrote a wikipedia article on captain teddy shapou, a world war II flying tiger. Elias Corey won a Nobel prize in Chemistry. There's been one Lebanese Guv, Victor Atiyeh of Oregon, and about three or four senators.(Spencer Abraham, Abdnor, Abourezk, Mitchell, Sununnu)

There's only one state where the Arab vote is appreciable, Michigan at 5%.

In NH, Sunnunu part Lebanese is running against Shaheen (sp) a governor who is married to a Lebanese.

[David W.]

This is where i'm from, so these attitudes don't surprise me. To be fair, Minnesota and Wisconsin have a strong progressive Democratic tradition, of the Farm and Labor kind (DFL), however, like most of the country, there are plenty of ignorant cranks and haters. I witnessed this attitude firsthand in 2003, when I told my mother that I was marrying my wife, a Lebanese who grew up in France, due to the war). I'll never forget her first words: 'But...we're at war with those people!'

Inbred racism and hatred are somewhat natural, and endemic to a certain part of our population. However, the sensationalist and incendiary rhetoric of the Limbaughs, Hannitys, and O'Reillys, and the pro-war cheerleading of CNN all have the effect of throwing gasoline on this smoldering pile of ignorance, hate and resentment. It is not a coincidence, I think, that my parents get their 'news' from FOX and CNN.

McCain got a taste of the power that Limbaugh and Hannity relish so much, and to his credit, he took a step back. Though diminishing, the demagogue machine remains. It looks a lot uglier in the light.

[Bill W, NH, USA]

The Republican Party could do themselves well by (not sure if it's allowable, but..) recalling McCain and nominating a decent man, Ron Paul. Paul knows what needs to be done to get our economy back on track and part of that isn't expanding the war in Afghanistan.

[Charles I]

What I am looking forward to, well, expecting, is the post-election fallout among the losing side. I predict right wing hysteria will make their performance to date look like that of cum laude graduates of Ms Manners' How To win Friends and Influence People Finishing School. Angry, ignorant people reacting emotionally by seizing on simple otherness, Arabness, blackness, Muslimness will have their worst fears confirmed by the very fact that their emotional processing of reality has failed to produce the desired, comforting, clearly(to them) moral result.

The resulting cognitive dissonance and intolerance will be wielded like a machete by the right that ratcheted up the with-us-or-agin-us culture wars in the first place. Debate has seen free speech painted as treasonous during time of permanent war. Inerrant, indignant intolerance has proved to a versatile political resource. It has been successfully used to stifle debate and delegitimize opponents, while obviating any examination of differing, less stridently promoted views. I expect it to be far baser that anything seen to date. My only sanguine hope is that the ignorance will be more fully exposed to the the clarifying light of day for the benefit of those not already too far gone down any handy emotionally protective rabbit hole.

There will be a war against against an Obama presidency that will, I think, further reduce the standing of the U.S. The shrill pettiness and vindictiveness Paul notes above are the hallmark of the intolerant, morally certain, right-wing cretin, and the merely fearful and ignorant. Both are part of their armament against reason and product of their black and white, all or nothing, good vs evil context, aside from their intrinsic value as political weapons. That context makes fervent intolerant pushback a moral imperative that in turn justifies and demands their slimy anti-rational approach.

[Charles I]

p.s. I forsee the possibility of a third, more overtly religious and intolerant " nativist and "know nothing" party emerging from defeat to confront ever mounting crises the only way they know how.

[Cieran]

Sidney:

And Paddy Chayefsky, better than anyone, described leftist intolerance brilliantly in the prophetic film, Network.

And he depicted both the heroic and foolish nature of war in The Americaization of Emily. He also aptly described the chaos of left-wing 1960's ideologies in The Hospital.

But honestly... so what?

What on earth does left-wing thinking from several decades ago have to do with McCain and Palin fomenting ethnic hatred and inciting violence today? Why bring up Faye Dunaway and Ilan Pappe as relevant evidence on the topic of GOP cultural intolerance?

With all due respect, what point is served by introducing red herrings into the discussion?

[LJ]

I have to wonder if the Secret Service had a roll to play in McCain's behavior--cease and desist.

[John Howley]

I expect Republicans to do more incitement of the their base even though it may turn off independents. Why?

Because they have given up on the presidential race. What they fear most is that the people you describe simply tune out and stay home, producing a real collapse on Election Day. THAT would mean a big loss of seats in the Congress.

So, Obama the terrorist is being used to mobilize their base voters to protect seats in Congress, not to defeat Obama.

[peg]

thank you for writing about this, Col Lang

thank you, commenters.

i learn a lot coming here! i find all of this useful when i speak with people in my area who only watch Fox News.

[Dan M]

Alzheimers? Maybe... but it seems to me McCain has being going along to get along.

Have none of us other laughed along with a joke, then later realized it was cruel or racist, and regretted it. Or realized later that we should have spoken out against something?

And this is an instance where laughing along not only might get us ahead, but get us ahead in what we truly believe is a noble cause (McCain actually believes Obama is bad for America, and he can "save" us).

Is the noble cause more important than principle? A struggle for McCain, who at one time acted as of his own sense of honor was more important than partisan politics, and who still likes to believe that's true about himself.

So we have an instance where the angels of his better nature caused him, however briefly, to do the right thing.

But the Rovian devil is still crouching on his shoulder and he will have to do much more before we can believe he has stopped taking its advice.

[srv]

As others have said, this century will be the final battle between religion and reason.

The economic disaster we now see the edges of will be used by these people to rip apart whatever remaining social veneer remains. Obama just isn't a socialist, he's their antichrist.

We can't win carrying this dead weight around. We've been trying for over 150 years, and it isn't going to work. We need to let these people go.

[charlottemom]

I'm hoping that Obama wins this election in a landslide (which it's looking more like he will). These low-information individuals screaming for Obama's head will no doubt still feel the same about him, but be less likely to lay it bear should he win in an election rout. Hopefully most will slink away.

In a crowd of the like-minded, they can feel comfortable by passively participating with boo, and even an "we hate domestic terrorist-loving Obama," but I think it's a leap to see those attending McCain/Palin rallies (as individuals would seem fairly conventional rule followers) as dangerous to Obama or blacks or Obama supporters.

Isn't there always a danger that unhinged extremist(s) -- who are always out there -- would act on pandering slurs and accusations made by candidates and highlighted by media. Dangerous yes, but haven't we been there.. this election's mult-racial terrorist simpathizer was yesterday's communist-loving Yankee, or some such slur?