So the media is starting to notice that McCain and Palin are
stoking the flames of a heated culture war in our society.
We've all seen
the videos of the various McCain rallies and how his constituents view Obama and liberals. Two weeks ago nobody cared about Bill Ayers. Nobody knew what ACORN was or had even heard about it. But now McCain is trading on these non-issues to encourage anger and hate at his rallies, and it's reaching a creepy boiling point. Attendees routinely call out to kill Obama, accusing him of treason and of being a terrorist. In an effort to salvage his own campaign, McCain is driving a deeper wedge between conservatives and liberals at a time when the whole country needs to be working together, not viciously attacking each other.
Now liberals and more progressive types aren't entirely blameless here, often times viewing the right as contemptuous and ignorant. But I don't see my liberal friends hinting that McCain or Palin might be terrorist, just unqualified. I'm not seeing them openly call for John McCain to be killed. And that's where the problem lies. As the right pushes to have the left be viewed as subhuman, mentally ill or as dangerous terrorist, unhinged individuals might take solace in this and find reason to act on their darker impulses. While it's shocking to read stories about people like
Jim David Adkisson shooting up a Unitarian church, the culture wars I'm seeing almost seem to encourage this behavior. Mr. Adkisson repeated a lot of the talking points and tropes that O'Reilly, Michael Savage, and Sean Hannity espouse in their books and in their TV programs, radio shows and syndicated columns. They're not directly to blame, but they do offer a target and provide convenient excuses for the ill to target people. If liberals are terrorists, treasonous, mentally disturbed, and godless monsters, then it must be okay for someone to take them down.
I don't expect riots in the streets anytime soon, and I don't expect lynch mobs to suddenly form and take progressive liberals screaming out of their houses to be executed, but it still feels me with disgusts and unease to see a major party candidate piddling the filth and hatred at his rallies as McCain does. There is a dark, murderous past found in America. A past that has resulted in the suppression to vote, public lynchings, and violent, clandestine murders. If McCain wants to tap into that because he feels it's the only way he can win an election, then he can go to Hell. A few weeks from now, hopefully we can put these barbaric lies he's spouting behind us and begin to repair the deep wounds in our country. Until that happens, though, the only thing we can do is fight against the ignorant and support a candidate who isn't trying to scare voters or rally them to hate.