I am writing a blog rant to send to my conservative friends who seem to be unable to put this election in a historical context. I thought I'd run it by the Kossacks to see if I missed anything. I did not go into as much depth as I would have liked but their attention span is questionable...
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McCain has sold his soul to attain the highest office in our land. I originally wanted to use a different adjective but restraint got the better of me.
I have been trying to wrap my head around this campaign, but in the end, it has confirmed my worst fears about certain segments of society. I have been following politics for 20 of my 33 years on this planet and have never seen a more despicable campaign.
It is one thing to go negative. After all, negative has proven effective in the era of Movement Conservatism. Donald Segretti, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove. These men perfected the hatchet job. But the outright absurdity of the attacks leveled on Barack Obama is truly amazing. This is an American who was born of a mixed heritage family, worked his way to Columbia and Harvard, and among other things was a Magna Cum Laude law graduate and first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review, a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, a board member of the conservative founded Chicago Annenberg Challenge for public school reform, a seven year Illinois State Legislator, and United States Senator.
The Annenberg Foundation, founded by the man who introduced Ronald Reagan to Margaret Thatcher, is the same that funded the organization that Obama served on with Bill Ayers, the scary terrorist. While Ayers' actions some 40 years ago protesting the Vietnam War were horrible, no one ever died as a result of his actions and he went on to reform himself and become a Distinguished Professor of Education and co-writer of a grant that won $49.5 million dollars for school reform in the Chicago area from the very same Annenburg Fund. A fund which includes on its board a mix of Republicans and Democrats. These same Republicans have come out in support of Obama during McCain's disingenuous attempt to paint Obama as a "scary black man" who is strange and different from good "white" Americans.
This strategy has worked before but I hope people in this country have grown enough to see past the smoke and mirrors. The grand "Southern Strategy" of Tricky Dick Nixon and perfected by Reagan. Race baiting, segregationist symbolism, states' rights. When Reagan kicked off his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi it was no coincidence that the town was the setting for the 1964 civil rights murders portrayed in the movie Mississippi Burning. The goal of the Southern Strategy is to stoke the fires of racial hatred and fear. Using code words such as forced bussing and welfare mothers to make working class whites forget the fact that conservative fiscal policies do nothing to help working people.
Abortion, gay marriage and religion in schools have been the cornerstone issues of Republican power. It might be interesting to note that all these people concerned about abortion never realize that it was Bill Clinton who had the lowest abortion rate of any president since 1980 not Reagan, Bush 41 or Bush 43. It's funny how helping working mothers provide daycare for children keeps desperate young women from seeking abortions. Abortions made legal by Roe v. Wade NOT because anyone supported abortion, but to protect the thousands of women who died every year in back alleys getting illegal abortions from unlicensed practitioners.
As for the separation of church and state, conservatives miss the point. Our founding fathers were Freethinkers and Deists. They created the separation not to keep God away from the masses, but to keep the government away from God! It was to protect Christians from, drum roll please... other CHRISTIANS. When the founding fathers were writing the Constitution there were colonies where Catholics could not vote, Baptists could not hold elected office and so on. Separation of church and state serves to allow EVERYONE to worship as they please without the interference of government. Be careful what you wish for, when government starts embracing religion you better hope you are in the right denomination.
Thomas Jefferson said "the priests of the different religious sects, who dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of day-light; and scowl on it the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies on which they live." I find it amusing that when conservatives invoke the name of the founding fathers, they always forget that the founding fathers abhorred the clergy. The same clergy that today proselytize the masses from their pulpit (illegally) to hoist the conservative flag. God is omnipotent. God does not need YOUR help to render judgment, remember? God does not need YOU to condemn homosexuals or desperate women forced for whatever reason to seek abortion. God will judge them, and YOU, for the life you lead.
But back to the subject of my rant, the attacks on Barack Obama. McCain and Palin have resorted to stoking the fires of hatred at their rallies in an attempt to reverse the course of their sinking poll ratings. Shouts of "terrorist" or "treason" or "kill him" are met by the candidates not by rebuke as they should, but by nods and grins. McCain and Palin are cowards. They choose to let their base carry the flag for the cause they can't carry themselves. After unleashing baseless accusations at the patriotism of Obama, McCain was silent on stage with "that one" for two hours. Barely able to look in his eyes. Go ahead McCain, say it to his face if you really believe it. You're a soldier, a hero right? Perhaps not.
The mainstream media has been too feeble to challenge this notion. McCain the POW. McCain the Hero. BULLSHIT! Ask a veteran how they feel about McCain voting against the GI Bill and providing a college education for our troops. Ask a veteran how they feel about McCain's repeated votes to cut funding for the VA. Ask a veteran how they feel about McCain pushing for commerce in Vietnam after the war at the expense of inquiring into the fate of those men who DID NOT get release from POW camps. Ask a veteran if they think McCain would have been spared if his daddy was not an Admiral. Shit, ask what they think about McCain crashing 2 planes and flying another into power lines BEFORE he even went to Vietnam.
Do I think those arguments are necessarily fair, perhaps not. But you don't see Obama swift-boating McCain on these issues because he is running a clean campaign. That is the difference. Obama is focusing on the Economy while McCain is attempting character assassination. An impotent man lashing out because he has nothing else to offer.
Stay classy John McCain!