I wrote a diary yesterday in defense of John McCain, but today I am disavowing those words of yesterday. This election seems to have moved from one about culture wars, ideology and policies to something truly scary.
This election has moved into the almost violent terrain and I as an African American am scared for Sen Obama's safety. I always knew there were people who wouldn't vote for him because he African American or because they think he is a secret Muslim, but the level of open anger and aggression spewed at him OPENLY by McCain supporters or just Obama haters on camera is truly vile stuff.
I think it is perfectly ok to oppose a candidate based on your ideological lean, its only fair. But when you start wishing the candidate to be bombed and to be killed, like we've heard some say then it is no longer within the realm of political deceny.
I am 19 years old and grew up in fairly liberal Southern California and I always heard that some white people (not just members of the klan) didn't like minorities or anything different for that matter, but I never saw so many ordinary looking people spew so much hatred for somebody all based on LIES. And whats bad about the whole situation is that I know that many of these people don't believe that "Obama is a secret Muslim" garbage, they just need a reason to oppose him and this is the justification for him.
They yell out things like "Arab"! and "Terrorists"! But lets be honest here guys we all know they want to utter that 6 letter word that begins with an N and ends with an R.
Today I was over at Ben Smith's blog on the politico and a pastor delivered an invocation at a McCain/Palin rally in Davenport, IA and said things that I don't expect to ever be uttered at a political rally, at least not one for one of the two major political parties in America. In his prayer he said the following
"I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god—whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah—that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons," said the minister delivering it. "And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and election day."
The reason I say this is becoming increasingly scary is because as election day draws closer and the possibility of an AFRICAN AMERICAN man named Barack HUSSEIN Obama becoming the President of the United States start becoming more and more real, those who always had some resentment toward people and things different will no longer be covert about it anymore they will proudly yell it out and some lunatic is going to try something.
I am not a pessimist and one of those "he's going to get shot" people, but the open display of anger at this point is not some to poke fun at and taunt people about because some of these individuals are unhinged and at this point don't seem scared for a second of trying something to save "their America" from "those people".
I remember reading a while back about how white supremacist groups were hoping for an Obama win this fall, not because he inspired them with hope but because they believed that it would "wake" the White community up to what is going on in this country today and that is that there are not only whites in America anymore and not only white male protestants can be President now.
For most of you on this liberal blog the reality of an Obama presidency is the best thing for our world in your opinion, but for many white Americans in small town America with little money or little intelligence, the last thing they have to cling onto in this increasingly evolving world is the belief that that their skin color and origins make them socially and globally superior to everyone else on this planet who doesn't look like them.
But when a black man named Barack Hussein Obama is leading the most powerful nation in the history of the world that belief is blown up. And that is why they are scared.