I just looked over the three diaries that went up on today on remarks by Georgia Congressman John Lewis. I want to know if anyone else thinks what I think, when I read Lewis' remarks and examine the context.
In case you don't already know, Lewis is a Georgia Democrat who's counted as one of McCain's "three wise men"--men who McCain will consult if he's elected.
That's why Lewis' remarks were so disturbing. He's warning McCain and Palin that if they don't take steps to rein in the hate rhetoric that's coming from the Republican side: there's going to be violence.
And when I add the hate-monger stuff that's going out against Obama via talk radio all the time (and at McCain/Palin rallies this week), it gives me the impression that the climate of hatred--if unimpeded by McCain/Palin--will foster violence directed at Barack Obama himself. (continued)
In a statement issued Saturday, Lewis said McCain and running mate Sarah Palin were "sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse." He noted that Wallace also ran for president.
"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights," said Lewis, who is black. "Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."
The Obama campaign has already disowned Lewis' comparison of McCain with Wallace, whose demagogic political career was largely built on a racist struggle against expansion of civil rights.
But Lewis is right about the McCain candidacy depending on a climate of hatred. McCain himself is being booed when he asks his Republican audience to be respectful of his opponent; he's being booed when he tells the same audiences that Obama is an honorable man and they shouldn't fear his presidency.
McCain doesn't want to see Obama killed, he just wants to beat him. But McCain is a Republican, which means that he has run his candidacy within the climate of hatred fostered every day of the week, all over the country by right wing broadcasters. For more than twenty seven years now, the conservative broadcast media has been telling millions of listeners that liberals are their very real enemies, that liberals hate America, that liberals will end freedom if they come to power.
The fact that those are lies, doesn't change the fact that millions of Americans now believe the lies with a kind of religious fervor. So they see a liberal Democrat--an African-American liberal Democrat--about to come to power in a time of crisis: the hatred, nurtured for years by those who lead the right, will boil over and turn to violence.
In his remarks, Lewis also said: "As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."
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Lewis is right. McCain and Palin are responsible here, if they don't denounce the conduct of supporters who shout "traitor," "terrorist," "treason!" at rallies when Obama's name is mentioned. If they don't disown it, they're co-opting the hatred, as their last, best and only hope for the White House. And that tolerance for their hatred is reason enough to disqualify them for any kind of political office.
As I said, McCain doesn't want to see Obama killed. But if he and Palin don't disown the hate rhetoric that's going out over the airwaves and tell their crowds that there's no place for that kind of talk radio craziness in his America--well, then it's clear that McCain doesn't care whether Obama gets killed or not.
"I want everyone to be respectful, and let's be sure we are. . . . That doesn't mean you have to reduce your ferocity."-- John McCain to supporters at a GOP rally in Lakeville, Minnesota, October 11, 2008.