blogger interrupted

In the 1860 presidential campaign, Americans were asked to make a presidential choice about race.  The two sides of that decision were moved to the kind of language heard at a McCain rally, today.

Here’s what TPM noticed.

McCain seemed to pause, and didn’t denounce the epithet. I’d argue that there’s no way to arrive at a conclusive answer as to whether he heard it or not, short of asking him and getting a frank answer. McCain could have been pausing to admire the pith and artfulness of his smear, or to bask in the adulation it brought. And McCain is not responsible for what some whackjob yells at his rally.

That said, the moment is uncomfortably revealing: McCain is now dabbling in the tactics employed in the most viral smears of Obama, if not to the same degree. No honest observer would dispute that McCain’s speech today was about sowing fears of Obama as a risky, unknown, and vaguely sinister “other,” and this supporter, at least, read the subtext, intended or not, loud and clear. And when McCain delivered that line there was a gratified, even visceral roar from McCain supporters, as if this attack — fear the alien in our midst! — was the gloves-off moment they’d been waiting for. 

The true nature of Republicanism is being laid bare this election.  And all it took was a black man named Barack Hussein Obama.  

How could anyone have guessed.

When I wrote this, in March, I got laughed out of the room.

Not that long ago, people killed to keep blacks from sitting at a lunch counter, or riding a bus, or going to vote. You think some of those same types of people are going to just roll over for a black man to be president?

As real as that fear is, it is far more likely that many others, completely anonymous, will be subject to violence across this country because of his candidacy, and that is my real concern. Gay people are attacked every single day for being gay, and while there certainly is a chorus of gay hate out there, there isn’t the current level of “thought leaders” egging them on constantly as there is in this presidential campaign.

It is inevitable, repeat, inevitable, that people are going to get hurt. It may be a few, it may be many. And no amount of begging them to tone it down is going to get these “thought leaders” to do so. The best thing we can hope for is that when these acts of hate happen in response to the drone around them, the news is reported as it happens, and the wider world sees it for what it is.

At the moment, the “he said, she said” is much easier for our media.  Far easier than noting that ginning up crowds to shout “kill him” and “terrorist,” about the first black man to become president of the United States, might actually be A REALLY BAD THING.

All we can do as bloggers is highlight it, shine a spotlight, and keep doing so.  And along the way, remind Americans that we are seeing an exposed nerve in American history which we thought was once completely healed over.  In 2008, as in 1860, every American must choose on which side of history our generation will reside.

Choose well.

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