America shows its true face.

All it took was a an uninformed and completely clueless governor from Alaska to electrify the GOP base. Once Palin was in tow, solidifying the Christian fundamentalists, it was time to give the crowd what they wanted. Meat. Red meat. So you had stump speeches from McCain and Palin saying Obama was "paling around" with terrorists. I vividly remember the freely frothing hatred that billowed from spiteful minds after 9/11, but this is reaching an even higher level of unbridled blood lust and mindless hatred than those days.

When the war in Iraq began gearing up, those of us who were against the preemptive strike were called unpatriotic, traitors and worse. Now, Obama supporters aren't just unpatriotic. Now, we hate America. We are no longer just supporting terrorists, but actually are terrorists. We are what is wrong with society and we are destroying the very basis of which civilization rests upon. It's not that we have an opposing viewpoint on issues, it's that we are pure evil fighting against the saviors of all that is right and good in the world. Delusion of grandeur doesn't even begin to describe the kind of mental disassociation that goes on here.

Palin and McCain put on their "awe-shucks, it's not our fault" routine whenever their shit-stirring is called out. "How is out our fault how people act?" they cry. Because you miserable fucks planted the seed, nurtured it along, and vigorously feed it to overtly engorged proportions. That's why. Years and years of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and the rest of the AM Talk Radio crowd sneering about those who hold opposing viewpoints as if they are vermin needed to be exterminated. It's no wonder that some wingnuts have already taken this message of hatred and personal piety (mayhaps even martyrdom) to the most extreme means, murder. The Unitarian Church shooting in Tennessee occurred because the shooter wanted to kill liberals "who are ruining the country." The same reason was given when Arkansas DNC chairperson, Bill Gwatney, was shot to death in his office.

The McCain/Palin excuse wears incredibly thin when you actually listen to them give these speeches. Yes, Obama pals around with terrorists and will make the country less safe, but he's not an Arab. An evil, amoral, murderous, unChristian, despot determined to destroy America? Yes, but not an Arab. What the fuck does this campaign think is going to come out of these people's minds? Obama's a horrendous piece of shit, but be civil about how much you irrationally hate him. What's the harm in that? It's just good, old-fashioned, unbridled, hate mongering. As pure American as Jim Crow laws and massive Native American genocide.

As if shouting "terrorist", "murderer", "kill him!", "hang him", "kill his family", "kill the libs", "liberals are homosexuals", "down with Islam" and all the other wonderful shit that these bigoted fucktards screech in such a shrill is just peachy-keen and merely a little bit of free speech. And it is free speech, but it is, more importantly, blatantly inappropriate for a candidate to run on the platform of "my opponent's an evil cocksuscker that hates you and wants to destroy you." It is fear mongering and spurring hate in a fashion that I thought I would never see play out on such a vastly public and open stage in such a supposedly enlightened era.




Jon Stewart on the monster McCain has created.


The type of hate I see the Right whipping up has moved far, far, far away from the "I disagree and you're an idiot" standpoint a few years back when Limbaugh first started Conservative Radio. It has now morphed into a battle call to eliminate the opposition. To burn, scorch, and destroy those who hold a belief against theirs. To purify so that the chosen ones may walk the Earth that they and only their ilk are deserved to do so.

This shit isn't just sad, it's fucking pathetic. It reminds me of how (I know, Godwin's Law) the Nazis began to operate after Hitler took over. Stirring up irrational hatred and providing a scapegoat. When acts of violence broke out, the Nazi party would also play the card of, "but how is it my fault if a few listeners take things the wrong way?" The thing is, listeners aren't taking things the wrong way. They are reading right between the lines where they should be. Just like The Turner Diaries. The words may be that Obama doesn't represent small-town values and isn't one of us, but the real message is that Obama's a fag loving n***er terrorist who hates America and wants to personally destroy you.

As if to top things off, a bevy of McCain supporters took the time to heckle lines of black voters. How these pieces of human garbage weren't arrested, I don't know. It is illegal to threaten or intimidate voters. What is even worse is that McCain/Palin seem to have no problem with this. Instead they keep on going, whipping people into even more of a frenzy and lining people's minds with the purest of irrational hatred and innuendo.




McCain supporters heckle and jeer at voters.



It is times like this that I am more than just sad to be an American. Not only am I ashamed, sickened, disheartened and afraid for my country, but it is reasons like this that sometimes makes me despise the American people. I love what America once stood for and for what, when it wants, it still can be. But these times cause me to hang my head low and weep.



Eagles Become Vultures by `vhm-alex
(click the above image to visit vhm-alex's DeviantArt webpage. prints can be ordered from there, if interested)


-edit-

I got to catch up on Hardball. I knew Gen Powell had endorsed Obama from NPR, but I didn't know the full reason why. Turns out it is partly because of how similar to McCarthy-era hate mongering the GOP has become.




Hardball: Powell endorses Obama



In a later clip, Buchanan even admits that calling liberals "communists", "unAmerican", etc. is wrongheaded and fundamentally improper.




Hardball: Pat Buchanan admitting McCarthy-esque witch hunting




Just because, here's Bill Maher on Hardball