The 2008 U.S. Election: There will be death
A friend of mine, a young journalist, e-mailed me this opinion:
I’m starting to fear some serious violence and hate speech at polling stations and the day after the election…The increasing cultural divide is really starting to make me nervous.
And he is right to be nervous. As we’ve seen over the last eight years, there is a group of Americans out there (calling them “conservatives” or even “republicans” just isn’t fair to conservatives and republicans) that believe that America has one major enemy - liberal Americans. And, like it or not, this group of people is violent and angry. And with John McCain’s support in pushing the Bill Ayers narrative, he’s pushing this radical, ignorant and angry group to violence.
Watch this video from Blogger Interrupted of a McCain-Palin rally in Ohio:
I once believed that John McCain would win this election. But that was before the economy tanked. And it was before it became crystal clear that McCain is running the worst Presidential campaign I’ve ever seen. Unless there is massive election fraud (which is possible), Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.
John McCain can talk about “Country First” as much as he wants, but there should never have been any doubt that the election of the first African-American President would be a perilous time, anyway. And right now, John McCain, Sarah Palin and the GOP are fanning the flames. They are accusing Obama of being a terrorist, laying the economic crisis at the feet of him and Democrats, and stirring up hate. And as long as many McCain supporters believe that the biggest threat to America is other Americans, than come November, the hate could very well explode.
Regardless, it doesn’t take a brilliant prognosticator to look ahead to November and be able to predict one thing with certainty.
There will be death.
Update: Blogger Interrupted posted Part 2 of the video:
–WKW
October 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
The deeper the McCain-Palin campaign descends into the muck, the more one becomes almost wistful for the enlightened days of code words & dog whistles.
Even if I agreed with every single one of McMaverick & McMooseHunter’s policies (which, admittedly, would be quite difficult, as she continues to make statements that are diametrically opposed to what he’s said previously), I can’t imagine voting for a ticket that no only shamelessly plays to, but also works to inflame, the basest, ugliest, and most divisive aspects of that wonderful entity known as “the human condition.”
How quickly and how embarrassingly the McMooserick campaign has sunk from “he doesn’t love this country as much as I do” to “he doesn’t love this country” to “he hates this country” to “he wants to destroy this country.” And how sad that so many of our fellow citizens are so willing & so excited to swallow this excrement — & then spew it back upon the rest of us.
I usually like to temper my political commentary with something resembling witticisms — and ease my too-quick-to-assume-the-worst mind with the thought that things really aren’t as bad as they may seem at the moment. But it’s difficult if not downright impossible to employ either of these strategies in this case.
In addition to resulting in the election of a man I believe may become the greatest president of my lifetime thus far, my other great hope for this election is that it continues to drive hateful individuals like these out into the open — where, as the ol’ saying goes, they can be exposed to that greatest disinfectant of all, the light of day.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
great post, Hugh. And don’t feel bad, my ability to write anything funny is slowly slipping away it seems.
That McCain had his wife go up and rail on Obama fo “not funding her son” really showed how low he’s willing to go. Because not only was that a blatant lie, it was evoking their son, which they said they wouldn’t do.
I can’t help but fear this will end badly.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
It was evoking their son, which they said they wouldn’t do.
They must’ve lost the”don’t invoke the son” memo when they were busy suspending the campaign, not bringing up Ayers, not bringing up Rev. Wright, not letting speakers emphasize Obama’s middle name, not invoking McMaverick’s POW status, not shielding McMoosey from the media, not attempting to stop foreclosed-upon citizens from voting, selling the Alaskan governor’s plane on ebay, saying ‘thanks but no thanks’ to funding the bridge to nowhere, and ensuring that no one with lobbyist ties was employed by the campaign.
I mean, with all that goin’ on, they were durn tootin’ bound to ferget sumptin, you betcha [wink!]
October 9th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I am a big fan of Hugh’s comments as well. It has made my job here much easier. Keep up the great posts Hugh.
As to the subject at hand, there are so many people in the world that just need the slightest invitation or excuse towards violence and the mob mentality. And once a mob gets rolling it’s like a snowball rolling down a hill. It becomes just about unstoppable.
In a famous comment made by Mark Twain, and I’m too lazy to look up the exact quote, he stated that 9,999/10,000 people are missing a character trait called ‘moral courage’. Although most of them are not bad people, they will go along with the crowd.
This means that for every REAL vile, ignorant, hate spewing racist, there are dozens of people who adopt the views to be a part of something.
It is so important to most people to be accepted by any particular group than they are more than willing to dish out any type of hateful ignorant nonsense or even participate in any kind of fiendish and evil atrocity in order to be part of something.
http://people.virginia.edu/~sfr/enam482e/lyncherdom.html
October 27th, 2008 at 10:48 am
dgun says: “This means that for every REAL vile, ignorant, hate spewing racist, there are dozens of people who adopt the views to be a part of something.”
And you’re talking about the left in general, aren’t you dgun?
And you are all correct in now realizing what the division will cause in this nation. Both sides now believe the other to be so far gone in their views, there will be no choice, other than the traditional way conflicts have been decided since the beginning of time.
But we have a choice. Perhaps we ought to consider the age of the “United States” to be over, and figure out a way to peacefully partition ourselves? The thought “irreconcilable differences” come to mind…