The right-wing spews venomous "jokes" and lies filled with hatred to create fear and divisiveness. Obama is attacked as a communist, fascist, socialist or Nazi bent on wrecking our country. What’s even worse, say the rage talkers, is that Obama cannot be trusted because he’s a Muslim, foreign national born in Hawaii.
Rage and fear can be like wildfires, spreading fast and hard to control. It is even worse when the rage talkers approach the use of fighting words to incite action at a time when there is so much kindling provided by multiple crises that leave many in fearful, unsettled states. While attacks are directed at our political leaders, the ignited rage may end up harming any one who is a more convenient vicarious target.
This is why we need a liberal radio station. The rage talkers have ownership or access to all communication mediums, yet liberals have few avenues for response, and even fewer mediums to initiate public debates.
McCain/Palin should be all so proud for bringing the crazies center stage. After solidifying support amongst their right-wing mindless fools, and having nada to offer to gain votes, they played the combo race/socialist fear card to scare people from voting for Obama. More GOP politicians joined the refrain that Obama’s policies were socialism or standards of a dictatorship.
So, McCain whipped out the evil socialism card even though he voted for federal bailout of banks because for many socialism is an inflammatory word despite a progressive federal tax and Medicare. Politicians claim political rhetoric while knowing that many Americans will flip with anger and hostility. Here’s one supporter mad about "socialists taking over our country" -- like Obama and Pelosi. The anger is seen in his words, tone of voice and facial expression. McCain and Palin respond by implicitly adopting the speaker’s statements:
The rage talkers also spread their venom with racism. For example, a RNC candidate’s Xmas greeting to committee members was a music CD with lyrics from the song "Barack the Magic Negro" that was previously aired on Limbaugh show. And, a mayor e-mailed a picture with the White House lawn planted with watermelons.
The fact that well-known members or leaders of the GOP send the message that it’s ok to be overtly racist is then picked up and spread by members of the public, such as a New York bakery that sold "drunken Negro head" cookies for inauguration day.
Feeling like one pissed off liberal? (thanks OPOL)
The losing duo used words of violent rhetoric, like Obama "pall[ing] around with terrorists" as really fighting words spoken to incite others. It worked. A supporter in the crowd responded by crying out "Kill him!"
Shouts to kill Democratic leaders were heard on the airwaves as well. Last March, David Feherty, a golf analyst for CBS, advocated the assassination of Democratic leaders Pelosi and Reid in D Magazine while libeling our soldiers as would-be assassins:
If you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.
Feherty’s words were then adopted by guest host Mark Davis on Limbaugh show, saying Feherty’s "words speak enormous volumes."
Ready to fight back?
The problem is that it is not just right-wing radio jerks like Limbaugh. Their print and TV cohorts, in a maneuver similar to subliminal messages, weave the baseless charges into their medium.
A cartoon in the New York Post likened the "author of the stimulus bill" (now who could that be?) with a rabid chimpanzee that two police officers shot to death for attacking a woman.
Al Sharpton responded:
The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys... .
Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?
The Washington Times ran an editorial called "Health ‘efficiency’ can be deadly that is about a healthcare measure supported by Obama. Imagine my shock to see this picture of Hitler located next to the editorial.
The editorial states that "secreted in the House version of the stimulus bill the President is trying to rush through Congress is the germ of a major overhaul of the American health care system." That germ is the creation of a National Coordinator for Health Information technology, which completes a process commenced by the Bush administration.
The new health IT coordinator would have no ability to facilitate government intrusion into medical records, as the Times claims. Its mandate would be limited to establishing a technological framework for care providers to keep computerized track of patient information.
Yet, the editorial compares administrative efficiency to a "Nazi version of efficiency" where "elderly people with incurable diseases, young children who were critically disabled, and others who were deemed non-productive, were euthanized."
C’mon. A Hitler picture to "illustrate" a healthcare measure supported by Obama? If only we had a liberal radio station to help us set the record straight.
A Fox TV show, Lie to Me, illustrates the insidious measures used to create the perception that Democrats cannot be trusted. The show is based on Dr. Cal Lightman who is a "deception expert" with the ability to "detect the truth by analyzing a person's face, body, voice and speech. When someone shrugs his shoulder, rotates his hand or raises his lower lip, Lightman knows he's lying."
According to Dr. Cal, when a character on the show started rubbing or caressing her hands together, this meant she was lying. After this script is read, then the TV screen flashes from the actors to a full-screen shot of pictures of Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Princess Di – with each woman holding their hands.
In the mood to defend our female leaders from sexist bullshit?
The scary part is that the Boston Globe reported that Obama’s election has spurred a "wave of hate group violence" - including a man who planned to use a "dirty bomb" to kill Obama.
Experts fear the renewal of militia groups and domestic terrorism like the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. "Such groups, they said, tend to feed on racial resentment, economic deprivation, and anger toward government, but they have focused their wrath on Obama."
Some crazies are in a state of paranoia that Obama will take their guns away, which is another GOP fear campaign. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center "blamed conservative politicians and pundits for employing talking points that supremacists rally around, including reports of government-sponsored "reeducation camps" and claims that Obama is a socialist."
Don’t have to look very far to find an example of a nutcase conning large audiences that Obama is "coming for you":
This diary trekked through a lot of dirt, but will end with some good pictures to wipe away the slime of GOP rage talkers.
Ready to fight for real change?
UPDATE: The True Blue Radio Blogathon Diaries (thanks to AlanF!)
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8am - MsGrin: Progressive Talk Made 2005 More Livable than 2004
10am - CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream: You want to know this.
12pm - Catjab: Relevant Talk
2pm - Jill Richardson: We're on the ground floor of something big
4pm - plf515: Blogathon for liberal radio
6pm - Ramara: Tomorrow The World
8pm - Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse: GOP Rage Talkers
10pm - Top Comments: True Blue Radio Edition (asimbagirl)
12am - boatsie: TRUE BLUE RADIO: "TAG! YOU'RE IT."
