Is John McCain a Racist Fear Monger?
I don’t believe that John McCain is racist or a hate monger. However I do believe that John McCain’s recent slide in the polls has made his campaign desperate to change the topic away from the economy. As much has been admitted by his own campaign when:
a “top McCain strategist” said, “It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice. If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”(1)
Few topics have the power to be able to convince people to ignore the destruction of their financial future. Fear, hate and xenophobia carry the power to trump the economic news of the day for some of us. With their options limited, the McCain campaign has turned to these tactics to try to breathe life into their Presidential bid, with Sarah Palin leading the way.
Here is an example of a recent Palin speech (If you want to be totally assaulted by unfounded lies, misrepresentations, fear mongering click the associated links).
Let me try to interpret the take a ways from Sarah’s speech:
- “We see America as a force of good, Barak Obama does not”
- “We see an America of exceptionalism [sic], Barak Obama does not”
- “Barak Obama sees America as imperfect enough to associate with terrorist(S) who want destroy it. Barak Obama wants to destroy America”
The implicit endorsement by our countries Republican political leadership has helped to bring out some of the ugliest things this county has to offer. Examples include people yelling “Terrorist”, “Kill him” and “treason” in reference to Obama at McCain and Palin rallies and often having the comments met with cheers.
Here are a few additional examples:
(3)
- “I can find nothing wrong with this sign/cartoon, which is truthful by Obama’s own statements,” wrote James E. (Jay) Gentry Jr. of Mountain Grove. (3)
- “If they can burn a flag, then they can put a sign up like that,” Fine told the News-Leader. (3)
(7)
(9)
More proof the unfounded claims are working:
It is also fun to be a racist at McCain/ Palin rallies:
To his credit McCain trying is trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Below is an example of McCain trying to set the record straight at a rally, interestingly the crowd actually booed his appeal to their better selves.
While McCain has taken it upon himself to address some of these claims his vice presidential candidate and campaign manager have not. In fact, the campaign released a statement defending the line of attacks. All of this frustrates and saddens me on several levels. Not the least of which is the feeling that John McCain I have respected for many years has been hijacked by extreme of his party.
Sources and additional reading:
- Insults fly as Barack Obama & John McCain prepare for second debate - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/10/05/2008-10-05_insults_fly_as_barack_obama__john_mccain.html
- Nervous GOP urges McCain to attack - http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/14146.html
- About those lynch mobs on the campaign trail - http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/13/about-those-lynch-mo.html
- Anger Is Crowd’s Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100903169_pf.html
- McCain Faces Backlash Over Rabid Crowds - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/10/mccain-defends-his-rabid_n_133710.html
- McCain’s attacks fuel dangerous hatred - http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.mccain10oct10,0,7557571.story
- Obama Bin Lyin’” Sign At McCain Rally - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/13/obama-bin-lyin-sign-at-mc_n_134201.html
- Barack Obama ‘pseudo controversies’ hide racism, news anchor says - http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/10/barack_obama_pseudo_controvers.html
- McCain’s Chilling Dance With the Dark Side- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/10/mccains_chilling_dance_with_th.html
13 Responses to “Is John McCain a Racist Fear Monger?”
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unfortunately I’m not surprised but I had hoped McCain and his campaign woud take the higher road. too bad ignorant racist hate mongers are so passionate and vocal.
I don’t know how McCain can look himself in the mirror knowing his campaign is using this tactic. It’s like he decided ends justified the means, but I don’t think he’ll be able to get it back on track even if he were to win. My biggest fear is some hate monger will feel justified in taking a shot at Obama.
Actually, while I don’t agree with the tactic. There is proof that negative campaigning works!
That is why they will not fully abandon it. From a strategic standpoint, they need to do what they can to rally their base and take attention away from world issues. McCain does not have the option to bring up specific issues/solutions — because his track record as a deregulator and Republican are things that the public percieves to have caused our current economic crisis. He must walk the line right now, and hope that he can make it to November without inciting too many fanatics.
WtF!!! Seriously, this is what it all boils down to? I’m disgusted by how ugly this entire election has gotten. People fear those things they don’t understand, and obviously a lot of people out there still fear the idea of a black man being POTUS.
Maybe camoflage hats cause brain damage, or prevent oxygen from entering the wearer’s brain. I have some relatives that would kill me for saying that, but can someone do some research?
Haters is SOOOOO stoopid. I respect a difference in opinion, just not when it is based solely on hate and emotion. And that is coming from a fairly emotional person.
I really do have to give McCain credit after watching that last clip. Hopefully he keeps re-edumacating his constitients. Cuz they’s needs them some honest truth.
The challenge is while McCain is correcting people at his campaign rallies Palin is doing no such thing. Additionally the campaign leadership is defending this line of attacks as whole.
Just makes me feel like The Straight Talk Express got hijacked by party leadership.
Yeah, ep/Sethmissile, I think they are specifically having McCain correct it and the rest of the campaign still do the hate / fear mongering so he has some culpable deniability. If he takes the high road, he appears to be a leader, while the rest of his crew still achieves the gains of a negative campaign.
It is such a shame that it has come to this. The McCain campaign isn’t organizing the vote, they’re building up a mob. It is frightening to believe there are still ignorant people like these in our modern day world.
Maybe.
I can learn so much from all of these videos. Another tactic to implement in my life: When someone asks me a direct question that I don’t want to answer, I’m just going to approvingly say, “You’re good! Look at this guy, he’s good!”. And then I’m going to meander off.
This is exactly why large crowds scare me. They are the way to highlight the dumb things that human beings do when in large numbers. I don’t think that any of those people would say the same things or act in the same manner if if was just them out there.
The republicans are the dirtiest players in the game, especially since the year 2000. So I don’t think McCain is running a racist campaign, he is just letting the party leadership conduct business as usual. And I think to a lot of the Republican base, a black man is already radical compared to McCain without knowing anything else about him. Then when you start linking him to domestic terrorists, introducing him by his middle name Hussein, and start inferring that he is an unAmerican outsider, I think the crowd reactions will naturally follow.
I try to be as independent as possible, but McCain has run the worst campaign I can remember seeing in a long time. I am increasingly hoping he loses, so that he will not only have to deal with the humiliation of defeat, but with the fact that he destroyed his reputation with nothing to show for it.
Frankly, I DO think he’s a racist, as many of his generation are, and continue to be. But I KNOW, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Caribou Barbie is as racist as it gets. When she says “he’s not like us” at her Klanservative get-togethers, she isn’t pandering-it’s what she BELIEVES.
Another way to look at this is that it’s a brilliant strategy by the Republicans. They let Palin go off and pander to the lowest common denominator of their party whom they need because they are probably the new voters. McCain publicly distances himself from those comments but not really since he doesn’t put an end to them. In this scenario, they get new votes and McCain looks relatively clean.