Murder

[This picture makes me physically ill: two weeks earlier he spoke at my college, and I was there. And yet, it's relevant.]


Scum like those dirtbags plotting to kill Barack Obama and dozens of black students existed before Obama's campaign, and will exist after; McPalin didn't create them. But they're chumming the waters; intentionally or not (I suppose it depends on how narrowly one defines "intention") they're providing the substrate for the bottom-feeders. And not all of them are as incompetent as these guys.

Everyone knows such people are out there. I'm sure I'm not alone in worrying about the possibility of assassination. So it's hard to hear the incendiary remarks coming from campaign podiums -- associating Obama with terrorism, calling him a communist, implying (if not saying outright) that he hates America, he'll take your belongings -- without feeling sick. How much incentive do those whack jobs (to use a recently reprised phrase) need to act? And the campaign literature, some of it directly from and the rest of it implicitly condoned by McCain and his party, is even worse.

I've not been more certain of anything than I am of this: if Barack Obama is elected he will govern from the center (okay, the left side of it, but not all the way), and his message of commonality will remain central. No matter how successful he is, the worst of us will remain close-minded and refuse to listen. Will enough of the people in the above-linked video, and the many others like them, allow themselves to wait, and to observe, and give him a chance? Will they judge him on what he does and doesn't, giving our country a chance, too; or will the stirred-up venom of the campaign, the call to our worst, reverberate down and down and take him -- and us all - with it? It really is in our hands, not Obama's.

If we let them, these young people might have a chance to grow up and save us all:

Look Up "Irony" In The Dictionary

Here's an interesting thought. Abandoning honor, rejecting his rejection of sleaze, John McCain chose, in desperation, to give his campaign over to the very people who trashed him in 2000. Some say he hired them reluctantly, that the "real" McCain mourned. Given the gusto with which he took to it, I doubt it. But that's not the point.

The point is that the low road (like that bridge) appears to lead to nowhere.* Oh, sure, it's got the rabble riled up. (And, not to take it lightly, it's not only obscene but downright dangerous.) But there are beginning to be signs of backlash.

John McCain sold his soul, reached out to the Rovian relics of 2000, and they trashed him again!! Back then, they stabbed him in the back. This time, he took it frontally; opened his chest and let them in. It's a self-inflicted wound, and I don't feel sorry for him. The only question is, does his feeble attempt at reining it in indicate true remorse, or just one more lurch in the direction -- any direction -- he thinks will lead him to the ring?

[* I write this during a moment of optimism; and yet I know it's far too soon to think he's overplayed his hand. We have a long tradition of negative politics, and I can't recall a time it backfired. Now that they're going after Michelle Obama, it seems everything is still on the table, and anything can happen. Hate still is an abundant fuel.]

Scenario

"Okay, Sarah honey, hit that delete button in your head, we've got some new stuff to put in."

"I'm ready, Johnny. Hey, don't look like that. You said I could call you Johhny, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get on with it. So here's the next line. A while back the uppity prick called our troops killers. Got that? Skinny shithead says all they want to do is kill civilians."

"Really? Gee, I find that hard...."

"Zip it, baby. You find everything hard. Just listen up. Take notes if you have to. See, someone asked him why we needed more troops in Afganistan and he said so they can kill more children."

"Golly, I know he's a Bowling League guy, but..."

"Ivy League."

"....Whatever. Anyhoo, it still seems sorta harsh. Whatcha got on the cards?"

"He said, "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there." Arrogant sonovabitch."

"But Johnny, doncha think maybe he was saying, you know, air raids are sorta gross and they kill extra people, mainstreet folks? Like from the air. I mean when you were a pilot..."

"Jesus Christ you little c@@t! You're not here to think, you prettified.... If I wanted someone who could think I'da picked Kay Bailey Hutchinson."

"Now Johnny, don't get your coronaries in a bunch. I mean, if you do, I might be... Anyway, wasn't he just saying having troops on the ground would mean we could be more accurate? Ya know, not make so many people mad at us? I mean, really, what's so bad about that?"

"Listen, baby. You've already embarrassed the hell out of me, okay? Shut the fuck up and find a place in that empty head of yours for a few more facts, okay? Okay? Heh, heh, huh?"

"Well, Johnny, here's the thing. Ever since that Katie lady told me about newspapers, I've been doing a little reading. Even George Bush ... now Johnny don't make that face... said killing civilians there was giving us a bad name. Couldn't that be right? I mean, look, even that terrorist you told me lived with the black guy? I mean, geez, he sounds like he mighta got saved or something, got the witches out of him maybe, because he's like a teacher at a college or something and was on charity boards and advised the mayor and stuff like that when the black guy met him. I'm not so sure..."

"Sarah, I'll say this once, and I'll say it slowly so your dimpled little peanut brain can take it all in. If you want to ride this train, you do what I say and you say what I say like that good little girl I know you are. Don't get all Cindy on me. High ground, my ass."

"Gosh, Johnny, you're kinda ugly-looking there. I mean golly, there, doncha think we should be telling the truth? We're calling the guy a terrorist loving troop hating unAmerican. I mean gee doncha think there we could rile people up too much, make'em crazy? I thought we had good stuff to say. Ya know sometimes I'm wondering if this is the right thing we're doing here.... Johnny? Johnny? Hey, whyya looking like that? Whereya goin' Johnny? Don't go. Don't bring back that snowboard water thing. Johhny? Johnny? Please, don't send in Rick Davis. Don't send in Steve Schmidt. Please Johnny. I'll be good...."


[I acknowledge that the above gives too much credit to the moose hunter. I don't for a minute think she feels bad about what she's doing. And I'd bet my left one that she neither read what Obama said in the one instance, nor cares about the bigger picture of Wm. Ayers in the other. Nor spent any time considering the implications; no sleep lost whatsoever. And, as her words seem to be inciting really distressing hatred among her avid supporters, she shows no sign of moderation. "Kill him." "Treason." "Terrorist." This is the world she grooves in; easily, thoughtlessly. I'd say also cynically, but that implies a degree of self-awareness. I think she's too clueless really to understand the truth or implications of what she's doing, and that is certainly consistent with my little fantasy.]

Double Negative

So McCain's brain trust (look up "oxymoron" and.... [whack!]) announces that for the rest of the campaign they'll be spending all their advertising money on attack ads. Actually announces it!! So they can, by their own description, be "turning the page" on the economy. Remember back in the beginning, when McPOW promised to run a respectful campaign, based on the issues? His wife, too.

Here's what I'd love to hear from Barack Obama:

John McCain has announced that the last month of this election will be full attack mode, nothing but. The politics of attack, distraction, distortion, and lies are exactly what has brought us to where we are: economy in shambles, an impending energy crisis, climate change unaddressed, staggering debt, two mismanaged wars, our place of respect in the world, gone. All because we keep electing politicians for the wrong reasons, baseless attacks and barbeques. Voting our fears, our hates, having been turned away from the important issues. We are where we are exactly because that kind of politics has always worked. It got us George Bush and Dick Cheney. Twice. It produces a Congress full of hyperpartisanship, people unwilling to find common ground with the other side. John McCain even ran an ad saying that because I agreed with him on some things, I wasn't fit to be president. What does that mean? That his ideas are so bad that agreeing with him at all, ever, means one isn't fit to lead? This is craziness that has to stop.

Now, at this time in the history of our country, when it may be literally true that if we don't solve our problems soon we may not survive as a nation, if we let the same old politics work, what hope is there? If now, of all times, we don't demand real discussions of real problems, if we think we can reduce discourse to ideas that fit on bumper stickers, if we are persuaded by winks and smiles and snarls, if we let politicians get away with lying and smearing as they always have, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. My entire political life has been based on the idea that change comes from the bottom up. And where it starts is once and for all, now, when nothing could be more important, a resounding rejection of politics as usual, politics of hate, politicians who want you to ignore problems rather than face them. It can happen. But only if now, finally, when it matters most, we rise up and say "Enough!!" We demand it. We are better than that. Now. There's no more time. Our leaders reflect who we are. Enough of talking down. Enough of memorizing talking points. Enough of fear and hate and simple-minded slogans. Enough of politicians with no new ideas, who want to bring us down to their level rather than us lift up. Enough. Enough. Enough!!!

And if he were really ballsy, he's say this:

I respect Joe Sixpack. Joe Sixpack is among my friends, among my family. America needs Joe Sixpack. Joe Sixpack built this county. But now is not the time to have Joe Sixpack on the presidential ticket.

I'd be okay without that last paragraph, though.