Post by MikeGrim on Oct 11, 2008 13:09:38 GMT -5
Will Hate And Anger Decide The Next President of the US?
by: Michael C. Grimaldi
For weeks now, I have felt compelled to write more about the current Presidential campaign in the United States, but I have held my tongue if for no other reason that I realise that a lot of my feelings are biased towards the party and candidate that I support. This week however, my fears of racial and religious division in the country have come to the forefront and are now not just an underlying issue that will sway voters on November 4th, but are being used to rally vocal and potential violent responses.
I don't claim to have come from a very...diverse background. I think I may have had 10 black kids in my entire high school, but I also have been to enough places within my own country enough to understand that the idea that racism and prejudice exists in far greater numbers that the general media is willing to say. The fact that only this week, has the "Bradley Effect" (a geo-political idea that many white people say they will vote for a black candidate, but when they enter the voting booth, actually will not) has been brought up shows that publicly, as country, we have tried to deny the fact that Barack Obama does not look like any of the previous 43 Presidents in United States history. Euphemisms have been in full effect, and over the past week, the idea that the Republicans have used to say that Obama is "not one of us" all but is saying to white people, "WAKE UP! The polls are saying the next President of The United Sates is going to be a black guy!"
Yesterday, after five or six days of allowing attendees of his political rallies to call out in anger phrases such as "terroist" and "kill him", without even a notion of saying, "woah...slow down. We're not saying THAT!" Senator John McCain finally corrected an older woman who said Senator Obama was "an Arab." McCain even went so far to say that Obama is a decent person and that people have no reason to fear him should he become President. WHAT!? So a weeks worth of stumping on the question, "Who is the real Barack Obama" isn't being done to incite fear? I have to call shenanigans on that one.
Look, I am glad Mr. McCain came out and said what he did. It's something George Bush never would have done and that, if nothing else, shows that deep down McCain is a decent human being; however, Pandora's Box has been opened, and allowing it to remain open for a full weeks worth of the 24 hour news cycle may have been enough to allow the radicals the time to rally their troops; and get the word out, to people who have deep seeded and racially motivated opinions to become emboldened.
Two statements in at one rally simply won't put these fears of mine to bed. Assassination of civil rights leaders in this country are not an anomaly, but rather the norm. Barack Obama doesn't run as a civil rights leader, but trust me, as the first nominee of a major political party for President of The United Sates of African American decent, that's exactly what he is. For the opposing party to even be comfortable inciting fear and hate in their base shows that some of them are either the most ignorant people in the country or they just don't give a damn and believe victory at any cost is all that matters
Having grown up in the 80's, I have never really seen a political figure who inspired a feeling in Americans that didn't exist previously, so I have never known the fear of seeing that person become a victim to those individuals who would go to any length to prevent that figure from achieving their goal. Right now, I have that fear. In an election where education and intellectual curiosity have been demonized and termed as "elitist," why wouldn't a rational thinking person not have at least some fear that words and accusations that are not based in truth or knowledge be enough to incite a more ignorant and hateful sector that exists in this country?
In the primaries, much was made about a statement Obama made about how in troubled and desperate times, people "cling to their guns and religion" and that staement is once again being used, this time in advertisements approved by John McCain. Well, in my life time I have never witnessed a more desperate time for this country both economically and it's stance in the world as a compassionate a decent country. So what exactly has the McCain campaign done in the wake of these troubling times? It has suggested that we cannot trust a man with an ethnic name and a darker complexion. In other words, telling Americans to "cling" to that idea people who don't look like you or come from the same ethnic background as you do, are to be feared.
I realise that the last paragraph does reveal and is based upon my political and social beliefs, but they are what they are. To deny that religious fears and racism won't play a factor on November 4th is just another in a long run of denials of this country's past, and we all have learned "those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it." However, since "learning" is elitist; and calling into question anything that has ever happened in this country that could be considered bad is, "un-patriotic"...I'm sure I have nothing to be afraid of...right?
by: Michael C. Grimaldi
For weeks now, I have felt compelled to write more about the current Presidential campaign in the United States, but I have held my tongue if for no other reason that I realise that a lot of my feelings are biased towards the party and candidate that I support. This week however, my fears of racial and religious division in the country have come to the forefront and are now not just an underlying issue that will sway voters on November 4th, but are being used to rally vocal and potential violent responses.
I don't claim to have come from a very...diverse background. I think I may have had 10 black kids in my entire high school, but I also have been to enough places within my own country enough to understand that the idea that racism and prejudice exists in far greater numbers that the general media is willing to say. The fact that only this week, has the "Bradley Effect" (a geo-political idea that many white people say they will vote for a black candidate, but when they enter the voting booth, actually will not) has been brought up shows that publicly, as country, we have tried to deny the fact that Barack Obama does not look like any of the previous 43 Presidents in United States history. Euphemisms have been in full effect, and over the past week, the idea that the Republicans have used to say that Obama is "not one of us" all but is saying to white people, "WAKE UP! The polls are saying the next President of The United Sates is going to be a black guy!"
Yesterday, after five or six days of allowing attendees of his political rallies to call out in anger phrases such as "terroist" and "kill him", without even a notion of saying, "woah...slow down. We're not saying THAT!" Senator John McCain finally corrected an older woman who said Senator Obama was "an Arab." McCain even went so far to say that Obama is a decent person and that people have no reason to fear him should he become President. WHAT!? So a weeks worth of stumping on the question, "Who is the real Barack Obama" isn't being done to incite fear? I have to call shenanigans on that one.
Look, I am glad Mr. McCain came out and said what he did. It's something George Bush never would have done and that, if nothing else, shows that deep down McCain is a decent human being; however, Pandora's Box has been opened, and allowing it to remain open for a full weeks worth of the 24 hour news cycle may have been enough to allow the radicals the time to rally their troops; and get the word out, to people who have deep seeded and racially motivated opinions to become emboldened.
Two statements in at one rally simply won't put these fears of mine to bed. Assassination of civil rights leaders in this country are not an anomaly, but rather the norm. Barack Obama doesn't run as a civil rights leader, but trust me, as the first nominee of a major political party for President of The United Sates of African American decent, that's exactly what he is. For the opposing party to even be comfortable inciting fear and hate in their base shows that some of them are either the most ignorant people in the country or they just don't give a damn and believe victory at any cost is all that matters
Having grown up in the 80's, I have never really seen a political figure who inspired a feeling in Americans that didn't exist previously, so I have never known the fear of seeing that person become a victim to those individuals who would go to any length to prevent that figure from achieving their goal. Right now, I have that fear. In an election where education and intellectual curiosity have been demonized and termed as "elitist," why wouldn't a rational thinking person not have at least some fear that words and accusations that are not based in truth or knowledge be enough to incite a more ignorant and hateful sector that exists in this country?
In the primaries, much was made about a statement Obama made about how in troubled and desperate times, people "cling to their guns and religion" and that staement is once again being used, this time in advertisements approved by John McCain. Well, in my life time I have never witnessed a more desperate time for this country both economically and it's stance in the world as a compassionate a decent country. So what exactly has the McCain campaign done in the wake of these troubling times? It has suggested that we cannot trust a man with an ethnic name and a darker complexion. In other words, telling Americans to "cling" to that idea people who don't look like you or come from the same ethnic background as you do, are to be feared.
I realise that the last paragraph does reveal and is based upon my political and social beliefs, but they are what they are. To deny that religious fears and racism won't play a factor on November 4th is just another in a long run of denials of this country's past, and we all have learned "those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it." However, since "learning" is elitist; and calling into question anything that has ever happened in this country that could be considered bad is, "un-patriotic"...I'm sure I have nothing to be afraid of...right?