There’s been a lot of coverage lately about the emotion being stirred up in the GOP base. Mostly, it’s manifesting at the McCain or Palin rallies, with shouts of “terrorist” and “socialist” when Barack Obama’s name is mentioned. Hussein is back as part of the full-name introductions now, and video after video is coming online that just rock me back on my heels.
People are angry — viscerally so — but I don’t think that’s the heart of the problem.
“I’m scared to bring up my child in a world where Barack Obama is president.”
McCain replies, “Well, I don’t want him to be president, either. I wouldn’t be running if I did. But,” and he pauses for emphasis, “you don’t have to be scared to have him be President of the United States.” A round of boos. […]
Indeed, he just snatched the microphone out the hands of a woman who began her question with, “I’m scared of Barack Obama… he’s an Arab terrorist…”
“No, no ma’am,” he interrupted. “He’s a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements.”
What the transcript doesn’t show is that after John McCain interrupts — between those two “no’s” — her tremulous voice comes back with, “No?”
Watch the video here. That lady is seriously afraid, and I expect the man who said he’s afraid to raise his child under President Obama is also genuinely scared.
It doesn’t matter, just at the moment, whether their fears are rational. What matters — what needs real focus — is that for these people, they’re real. They really, truly believe the combination of email rumors, innuendo, and smear tactics that have been ongoing for nearly 2 years: that Obama’s a terrorist, or a Muslim, or a socialist. The ultimate Manchurian candidate who’s going to do… something. Something really scary.
And fear, unfortunately, often turns to anger.
Where is this heading? Is it here?
There may indeed be blood in the streets before the current political and economic issues before the nation are resolved. But it won’t have much of anything to do with Race, it’ll be about the fundamental principles of this Republic a great many Americans are not prepared to give up without a serious fight.
And the rage won’t just last days … it could be a battle fought for years and not always without its victims. Can you imagine the look on the faces of the Obama-loving Ayres apologists at the New York Times when the bombs start exploding in their lobby, instead of the Pentagon?
Dan Riehl, who wrote those words, says he doesn’t advocate the actions he’s describing, but it’s not much of a leap to imagine exactly what he’s written.
Has McCain waited too late to dial it back? For all our sakes, I hope not.
Back during primary season, McCain struck me as the Republican least likely to run the sort of campaign we’re seeing now. It’s surprising and disappointing. That at this late hour he seems to be realizing that maybe whipping people into a bloodthirsty mob who wan to kill his opponent is a bad idea doesn’t really redeem him.
I never thought I’d see a presidential race where people screamed “Kill him” while candidates stood by and watched it happen. I never thought I’d see that from a McCain campaign. Life is full of unpleasant surprises.
As bad as this seems, it is probably not the worst that has ever happened. At least, we are divided up along the lines of Red and Blue, rather than Blue and Gray… Seriously, I would maintain that the 1860 election was far more contentious for the country than this one will ever be.
That being said, I think it behooves us all to dial back the rhetoric a notch or 10. After all, we survived 4 years of Jimmy Carter, we survived 8 years of Bill Clinton – surely an Obama presidency won’t mean the downfall of the Republic!
~EdT.
John, I agree — I didn’t expect this out of John McCain either. And I’m not trying to absolve him here. I’m trying to point out that there’s a very real emotion underpinning what these folks are feeling, and that emotion is what has to be addressed somehow. Not the anger, but the fear.
EdT, that’s exactly the long view people should take.
Fear Itself (etee2k[DOT]net):
Polimom,
It is true that the daily tracking polls have drifted towards Obama over the last two weeks, as the epic financial sector meltdown of our time has played out. Many Dems think this means the election is already over and Obama has it won; many Repubs are fearful that they are right. However, Michael van der Galien posts the last eight weeks of poll data broken out by self-described political orientation.
Other than both party bases ‘coming home’ as the election draws near, I am hard pressed to find a major change in the preferences of the sub-groups. It is difficult to see how the overall lead is changing so much, unless the weighting of the subgroups is also changing. What it comes down to for The Master, is that the election hasn’t happened yet, and it will be determined by which subgroups actually show up to vote.
Obama may very well win this thing, and he may win big. However, after possibly the two worst weeks imaginable for a candidate from the incumbent president’s party, to be trailing by only a few percentage points should be disturbing to the Dems, and offer at least a shred of hope to the Repubs.
“It ain’t over ’til it’s over!”