I posted yesterday regarding the serious dangers of McPalin's latest campaign tactics inciting supporters to act out violently against Barack Obama - and how such tactics are not naivete, nor incidental. That with all the experience in the GOP, it is impossible that there is no one therein who is not only astutely aware of those dangers, but in fact are purposely fueling the fire as a last ditch effort to prevent the loss of power in the status quo that an Obama presidency represents to them.
Many felt it to be an alarmist view.
After posting it, I was speaking to a friend who happens to be european, and they helped raise a little "devil's advocate" perspective.
A portion of a brief exchange we had (roughly translated), and the stunning realization I had in the process, is below the fold. It is sobering, even for me.
JohnsonResult: It seems many think it alarmist of me to call out these latest actions by McCain's campaign.
Friend: Has it been that long since Kennedy and MLK?
JR: It seems so... that the bitterness of those events is no longer as sharp for most Americans. To most, even supporters of Obama, they advocate the need for calm and courage more than pointedly calling out these latest actions by the GOP for what they are. Many resist that it is deliberate, or done knowingly.
F: Why would they go to such an extreme risk instead of waiting 4 years?
JR: Well it's not just a matter of 4 years. Successful governance by Clinton cost them 8 years, and Obama should be as good if not better in my view because he is less lobbyist-beholden...which is why he is seen as such a threat...and that 8 year run should have been even more with Al Gore, but they managed to work the system and win back power... and with the new awareness re: global warming etc, they need to retain it as global industry goes through this pivotal moment of evolution toward the new green industrial revolution.
F: But with Dean and Kerry and Gore they didn't kill them for real, only in character and on TV, no?
JR: Yes. But that hasn't worked with Obama, in my opinion because he is simply a more authentic leader, with less real baggage to hang around his neck.
F: Dean had baggage?
JR: Well with Dean, it seemed more that he failed to win over the media, and when they went for ratings at a certain moment, it just happened to be his jugular. The GOP is nothing if not masterful at using the media and shaping enemies' public image, at least long enough to win...
F: But it's not working with Obama.
JR: No, in fact the opposite. It's backfiring because he has really just laid it out there for people to see him and judge him on their own, and they can see it's genuine.
F: Again though, inciting him to be murdered is extreme...
JR: It is. But these same people incited the American people into supporting a criminal war against a nation that had nothing to do with the supposed reason for the war. And war is war - everyone knowing full well that in wars people die. Americans die. And yet, these Republican American "leaders" manipulated a whole campaign of deception - and outright lies - to create this war where so far 4180 deaths of fellow Americans have been killed.... So what does it matter to them if it's 4181? I mean really, what's one more dead American to people who have sent over 4000 to their deaths already? They didn't have to pull the trigger, they just put them in harm's way...and that's precisely the same they are doing with Obama... just putting him in harm's way and choosing the lies needed to keep him there until their desired result occurs. What's the difference? Why would one more dead be a problem for them?
So I ask you Kossacks, my fellow Americans: Why indeed would one more dead American be such an unimaginable deed for the party that has murdered 4180 fellow Americans and counting? He's not the president, yet... and to many of the GOP, like that sheriff in FL, he's just a skin tone and an ethnicity... and a threat.