Watching the McCain/Palin campaign devolve into ugliness this week and the enthusiastic and frightening response by their supporters, I couldn't help wondering whether the Republican establishment, in particular those who have spoken out against this ugliness, were self aware enough to realize that McCain was merely reaping what the GOP has sown for years.
For decades now the party has embraced bigotry and ignorance. They have kowtowed to what McCain himself once referred to as "agents of intolerance". People like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and John Hagee, et. al. who preach a divisive, judgmental, hate-filled message that would have Jesus spinning in his grave (if he hadn't risen from it.)
Earlier this week at a McCain rally in Davenport Iowa, Pastor Arnold Conrad, gave an invocation where he said the following (audio here):
I would also add, 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.
Wait! There's more...... and it's worse
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.
Is this an appropriate invocation at a campaign rally? Goading the lord into some sort of higher being cage match?
Should a so-called man of God and spiritual leader be having such sentiments to begin with let alone say them in public? In his role as a pastor? Again the man's name is Pastor Arnold Conrad - a name to remember. A pastor to avoid at all costs.
The fact that Pastor Conrad found this an acceptable invocation speaks volumes about Pastor Conrad (which I will leave between the man and his maker - but as a public service I will suggest that when he makes his plans for the afterlife, he pack for warm weather.) It also says much about the Republican Party and what it has unfortunately become.
To be blunt the GOP has become a party where people feel comfortable expressing their hatred for others. The GOP has become a party that positions those who disagree with their positions as unpatriotic or worse still un-American. The GOP has actively been encouraging divisiveness and demonization and in doing so has created a petrie dish for fomenting prejudice and vitriol And now, the GOP is in danger of having the inmates take over the assylum. It's hard to know how big a chunk of the base is represented by the sad, sorry, ill-informed, bigots we've been seeing over the last few days, but what was made crystal clear this week was that many people felt comfortable spewing their hate and flaunting their bigotry at official Republican political rallies.
Whether it was a bigot caught on tape bringing his stuffed Obama monkey to a Palin rally.
Or the attendees of rallies in Strongsville Ohio / Strongsville (Part deux) or Bethlehem Pennsylvania
Or those inside the rally shouting "Kill Him!" "Terrorist" etc. Hate, ignorance and bigotry were all on proud display.
The number of people who are uninformed is a bit frightening. It's even more frightening to know that these rumors and lies about Obama are not just circulating in annonymous emails and from fringe hate and conspiracy groups.
Gayle Quinnell the woman at the McCain rally who thought that Obama was an Arab (and still does by the way) got some of her information about Obama from a pamphlet she got from a McCain campaign worker. It wasn't official campaign literature - but still.... Those representing the McCain campaign are circulating this misinformation. Quinnell, a McCain volunteer herself, has made hundreds of copies of letters filled with these lies so she can spread them via snail mail to the computer illiterate.
These rumors are stirred and circulated and hinted at and alluded to by members of the heart and soul of the conservative media - slime like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage, Anne Coulter, et. al. These are hate mongers with a capital HATE MONGER and they have been "O'Reilly-ing up the troops and spewing lies, rumor innuendo and vitriol for years. The Republican party has legitimized and embraced these men and women and their tactics. Many of these politicians have benefitted from good ole' Rush and Sean et. al. by letting them "rally the base" at election time. Rally meaning scaring voters and honing in on the buttons that will make their constituents see the other side as communists or socialists or terrorists - something to fear and despise. And they have done their job well - feeding on hatred and prejudice to create even more hatred and prejudice. (How much is anybody's guess.)
And the entire time the Republican machine has applauded and championed this as conservative voices, as media without a liberal bias, never acknowledging it for what it is. Commercial hate speech. Detestable, disgusting, unacceptable hate speech.
So now the republican party has moved from the principles and intellectual honesty of William F. Buckley to the vileness of Pat Buchanan at his most vile and if things don't change soon - Buchanan will be seen as moderate in his hateful views.
The party of Lincoln is becoming the party of hatred and the powers that be have no one to blame but themselves.