John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.
At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.
Shame!
John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain.
You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.
John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.
Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.
John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows.
John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.
Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever.
We will hold you responsible.
Frank Schaeffer is the author of "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back." His e-mail is frankaschaeffer@
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Joan Walsh
Kerry Lauerman
Salon.com
Comments
I share your sentiments 100%.
What do you expect? You are talking about the right wing base that gets 90% of its information from FOX News propaganda and Rush Limbaugh's hateful distortions of reality. This is the heart and soul of the modern Republican Party.
I applaud your honesty, but really, isn't it a little late? Rush and Sean and others have been spewing their hatred for years.
I hope you've sent this letter to the McCain camp. They aren't going to listen to Democrats, but they might listen to you.
McCain tries to calm things: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/10/mccain-defends-his-rabid_n_133710.html
But too late? I think so.
Speaking out against hate is always in season.
thank you
rtd
G
Thank you for writing this blog.
I am sorry this man has betrayed your trust. I'm sorry that your book is wearing his endorsement. And I thank you for speaking up.
Thanks for writing this.
I'm off to look up your book now!
McCain today made an attempt to quell the hatred, but in the case of his running mate, don't look for a conciliatory attitude from her.
As one who believes in "The End Times", and ardently desires that Armageddon arrive ASAP, la Palin would not be displeased if an assassination attempt against Senator Obama should occur. It could trigger a race war which culminated in the destruction of our world.
I recall another person who had his fifteen minutes of fame, and who hoped for the same result, when he sent his murderious minions to kill innocent victims, in the belief that it would be blamed on blacks, and would result in race warfare. Can you say Charlie Manson?
Yes, the blood will be on his hands -- as noted -- if "That One" is assassinated by one of his lunatic-fringe members of "the base" (which translated into Arabic, I'm given to understand, comes out 'al quaida' ...hmm, who's the terrorist now?)... but if it gets him in the saddle for BushCo Round III, does anyone seriously believe that the blood of some half-black Chicago politician would matter one bit to John McCain? Come on now... this is a guy who supported the murderous Contra thugs in Nicaraugua, turned his head the other way as thousands of innocent peasants were slaughtered in their villages (like El Mozote), and cheerled this nation into an illegal, no-justification murderous quagmire in Iraq (and then voted against GI Bill benefits for veterans).
I well understand the impulse to appeal to McCain's humanity and decency... but there simply ain't no 'there' there to appeal to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us&eurl=http://www.crooksandliars.com/john-amato/what-hate-right-wing-talk-radio-blogger
I'm reminded of the John Stewart Mill quote: "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives."
rated
Funny, but there was a time that I would have said this about McCain, but not anymore. I am very scared of the idea of this man, who has so willfully and thoughtlessly lit the torches of the mob to light his path of power, holding the office of the POTUS
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=27262
I met your mother once, and I read Portofino as a college student in the south...my roommate, whose parents were missionaries, and I read it out loud laughing at all the parts about the train station and the prayers because it was so true and so well written.
This letter is far more serious, but I agree. I want to think that there is some good person still hidden inside John McCain, but either that person is currently lost, or he never existed. Like you, I grew up in the evangelical right wing (I came a little later) but I never understood, as a grown up person, why that odd marriage happened between the G.O.P. and evangelicals. Particularly since it seemed like Jesus was quite fond of poor people and not so fond of the wealthy and the powerful (hypocrites).
Thanks for speaking from the heart to McCain. I'd like to think he will hear it, but it seems like ambition can have a dulling effect on the senses.
cheers.
We can thank good ole' Georgie Porgie piece of shit for the mess we're in, and McCain and Palin want to keep the shit going.
When Steffi Graf was in her final days on the court, she was still winning majors but they were coming harder for her. In the midst of particularly tough matches against lesser opponets her coach/manager would stand up and yell the same 4 words at her: "Remember who you are!" That is the proper admonition for John McCain, "Remember who you are!" Cause it ain't this.
Subject: Please, Sarah Palin is not funny
Sarah Palin is hateful and is attempting to win an election by pandering to dangerous and potentially violent wingnuts.
It's one thing to satirize her and another to elevate her demonstration of absolute disrespect for the office for which she was nominated. By giving her a place on Saturday Night Live you give her a platform to either dress up her intolerance, or hide it behind scripted humor and to imply some kind of agreement for her failure to address the hatefulness that is being expressed at her rallies.
As a woman who developed grey hair watching this show regularly, I just have to tell you, I am offended. This is beyond irony, satire, it's not funny, it just feels cynical and mean. Please don't.
Dr. Susanne Freeborn
Bellingham, WA
"It is our duty - as men and women - to behave as though limits to our ability do not exist. We are co-creators of the Universe." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
His constant refrain that he took on his party and voted against them, somehow showing his "maverickness" is silly and easy to counter. All Obama has to say is, "good for you John, glad to see you join the Democrats. I haven't had to vote against my party since they are usually right!"
As far as the question of 'fitness to lead', I really an fearful to where a Palin administration would lead America to. Her haughty brand of reckless self-righteousness is dangerous and extremely so now that she seems to be enjoying lobbing Molotov cocktails from her high perch next to her 'god'.
I sure hope that I am able to leave this country before she closes the borders once she takes office.
Religion in the hands of the ignorant is a very powerful weapon. Can they handle this monster that they have been feeding... I did a post about the very real possibility of racial violence in the case that Obama loses. I'm beginning to wonder what will happen if he doesn't.
They need to do the 'here we are before the photo op, during the photo op and after the photo op'.
Get Fey to talk without the accent, roughing up her staff then pouring on the charm and then post going back to a rough and nasty chain smoking hard core bigot. They can do it. Hell, in the day, they bar-b-qued Gerry Ford relentlessly over his little walking problem.
IF they show what really is happening behind the scenes then it will make up for all of the 'cutesy' Palin stuff. I too haven't found it as funny as it is sad. Palin is a well trained actor playing a part to win a place in history. Lets try to make sure it's the right one... They could start by having Fey as Palin blowup over some slight and 'fire' someone...
The worst thing may be that anyone who corrects the ballot to write in Obama will render her vote void.
The officials claim it was a typo. But it's not like the b and the s are next to each other on the keyboard!!!
I think not. His comments of yesterday are too little, too late. The screaming hordes are lusting after blood..thanks to John McCain and his ethically challenged sidekick.
I remember that people were shocked by seeing the video of Sarah Palin being prayed over in church for protection from "witchcraft," the video of her talking about doing God's work in Iraq, and so on. People are surprised by this, but this sort of thing is par for the course in pentecostal and charismatic churches. These things happen every week in churches around the country. It's just that most people are not exposed to that, and they don't expect a candidate for vice president to be involved in such services.
And now, there is controversy over the tone of language during McCain's and Palin's rallies. But if you hang out on a few right-wing web sites, you'll see this kind of language every day. It's a worst-case, scorched-earth kind of rhetoric in which Obama ("Osama") is a "DemocRAT" America-hating Muslim sympathizer who is part of the "culture of death" liberal, statist, and Marxist, elite. From there it's not far to go to thinking of Obama as a terrorist-lover, or even a terrorist and traitor himself.
This is nothing new -- it's just standard Internet fare leaking through into the campaign rallies, intentionally or unintentionally encouraged by McCain's and Palin's rhetoric.
A perceptive author (whose identity escapes me at the moment) once said that the Republican party had become all fringe and no center. The nomination of Palin was an obvious attempt to appeal to one part of the fringe, and the recent attacks against Obama are designed to build up another part of the fringe. The problem is that all fringe and no center translates into all pandering, all ugly rhetoric, and no coherent plan or intellectual or moral focus.
I had thought that one of the main stories of the primaries was the rejection by Republican voters of the ultra-right wing of their party. It is now clear that this faction won by taking control of the McCain campaign.
I suspect McCain might not be in position to do anything about why his camapign has become. The real story seems to be how McCain lost the Republican primary after winning it.
I suspect too that the greater danger isn't the mob that the Republican campaign has manipulated and inflamed, but the clique behind the manipulation.
They are the ones, not McCain, who selected Sarah Palin.
They are the ones, not McCain, with the agenda for a McCain-Palin administration.
Who are these people?
Most of Salon readers are in your choir.
So worth for other Americans reading.
The really sad part of this political cesspool is how both factions have exploited both major political parties, kidnapped them for their own narrow agendas, and fueled the hatred found on both sides. Lefties dont' understand small town America anymore than righties who profess to own small town America!
His correction of a woman at his Minnesota rally yesterday was a tad reassuring, but it might be coming too late. The seeds have been sown and as the boos at that same rally should suggest, he may have lost control of this mad group.
Senator McCain has a long history as a spoiled, out of control, mysoginist, son of extreme privilege, and a man with very serious anger management issues. The bio of him in the new Rolling Stone paints a very disturbing portrait and one that is simply a final summary of much that I have been reading about in bits and pieces.
The modern Republican Party is in a complete and well deserved shambles. If it is to regain its soul (which it lost with the election of George W. Bush and the dependence on Karl Rove), it must police its own members and let them know that a campaign such as Senator McCain is running is simply not acceptable.
Cynthia Nill... aka ...Writinggirl
In the same way, I am hearing the inflammatory language used by McCain and Palin in their rallies as being devoid of an elementary sense of responsibility. We have to let them know that we are watching and hearing them, as well as the mobs they are inciting to acts of violence. McCain and Palin are ACCOUNTABLE for their words as much as we each are for our own words and their consequences.
God forbid, if anything bad happens to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or their families, we already know who the intellectual authors are. Yes, I am afraid of hateful, angry mobs; and even more, of those who so irresponsibly incite them.