At McCain Rallies, America Seems Close To Revisiting Its History Of Political Violence

The history of political violence in America is a well-documented disgrace, and is not to be taken lightly. It is almost exclusively relegated to right-wing America haters like the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party (which inspired the likes of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh). Like many of my friends, the violence mongered recently by John McCain has not escaped my attention.

So I couldn't help checking out "A Little Reality" - a video shot on October 8, 2008, of supporters lined up to see the deregulating, plane crashing, husband of a millionaire who has earned the loyalty of these hate-spewing thugs. But what I discovered was not what I expected.

At first, I thought maybe I'd clicked on the wrong link. Were these people shuffling into a Home & Garden Expo...or the grand opening of a new Fatburger? And then the buffet-line refugees began to bellow.

"I think you're stupid," said one, to the cameraman. "Why, sir?" "Because...that guy (Obama) gets elected, he hangs around with terrorists!" "Who's the terrorist?" The old timer almost stifles a smirk: "Obama!" I get it - Obama's a terrorist because he hangs around with terrorists, because he's a terrorist. On second thought, maybe this is a MENSA reunion!

"Commie faggots," whines another one, who in that one poignant moment spans both ends of his life, from the pre-school sandbox taunt to the death rattle in the cardiac ward. I find myself hoping they're serving food at the hatefest - he doesn't look like a guy who's ever waited long for his next meal.

"Get a job," shout the retirees whose government-provided entitlements the rest of us are paying for. These are the true Americans! "Socialist swine" hisses one through his dentures, as the Bush administration prepares to buy ownership interests in banks.

A bald, bespectacled 70-year old lumbers by and says "Die," then brings his finger across his throat and points at Obama supporters across the street. He looks like a truly dangerous guy. Plus about 45 years. "You think they should die?" asks the cameraman. The ruthless killer thinks for a moment. He sees where this is going, but he's one step of the liberal with the camera. "Everyone dies, don't they?" Oh, snap!

"And he is a Muslim," an elderly woman warns us. We can tell right away that she knows a Muslim when she sees one. Her bowling league is probably littered with them.

"Do you think he's an American?" asks the cameraman. "I don't know what he is," says interchangeable old guy #62, slamming that door shut.

Next up, a small, solemn group of patriots - average age about 75 - sings a painful chorus of "God Bless America," as if to inoculate themselves against the idea that a "colored boy" (insert your own euphemism) might possibly defile the White House with his presence.

A 300-pound man in an XXXXXXXL T-shirt displaying an Obama logo customized with a hammer and sickle (remember those?) transports his bulk down the street covering more ground from side to side than he does straight ahead, while another explains how Barack Obama and ACORN caused the worldwide economic crash. It's obvious, to him at least, that with a little more deregulation, that would never have happened.

Well scrubbed, well dressed, well fed, well indoctrinated, and mostly well over the hill...this, then, was the unruly bunch of troublemakers that stirred so much Progressive anxiety. Up close, they seemed more like cattle - dangerous only if stampeded, and then only to delicate things like china shops and Constitutions. But few looked fit enough to sustain a quick waddle, much less a stampede.

I realized that my physical safety was really the last thing threatened by this herd. More horrifying was the thought that I might someday have to squeeze into a middle airplane seat between two of them. After half an hour in their presence, I might gladly jump out of the plane.

But therein lies the point. Although America's violent history is long and shameful, so is its history of ignorance, conformity, irrationality, selfishness, racism, and mean-spiritedness. As we have come to realize in the eight years since willful stupidity became fashionable, these less obvious character defects can threaten our safety and prosperity every bit as profoundly as overt threats of violence can.

McCain's pathetic rabble are to be feared, more than anything, for the loss of moral integrity they represent. They live on lies. We can only hope that their destructive petulance ends abruptly on November 4th, when the decent and honorable among us rise up in overwhelming numbers and insist that we the people embrace the better angels of our nature.

Comments

[NorthCoastChick]

Thanks for your post Ellis. I viewed the video you talked about and shook my head. At a rally in Strongsville OH last week almost the identical thing was filmed.
Different State, Different People, Same Hate.
The scary thing is that these people look like some of the people I work with. I found myself scanning the audience for a familier face.
The spirit of ignorance and racism cannot be turned off between 8 and 5 and turned on after work. It cannot even be camouflaged very well. The next time you hear a AA (of which I am one) comment that racism is alive and thriving in America think of the what you have seen at those rallies recently. I know it is not everywhere and everyone, but it is more pervasive than we may like to admit. There is a bright spot though, I have seen it disgust alot of White Americans too! There is HOPE after all!!!

[Whinger]

Racism and extremism defiles the nation, not the color of a man or womans skin!

[dexxjones]

they wallow in lies is more like it. also, this isnt an elderly or fat thing. One of my best friends just turned 75 today and is an avid obama supporter. dont give them the excuse. they act this way because meanness is taught to them by their heros at fox news and on the limbaugh show and even in our halls of congress.

[pons1595]

In my 65 years here, I have known slugs like the writer talks about; to overcompensate that they are somehow fat and old and ignorant--of course, they are--somehow makes it less than the utterly despicable, disgusting example of human waste does not persuade. The only hope we have is human attrition, that old mother nature will soon call for their reprehensible guts wrapped in an all American coffin.

[cylindar]

Amen!

[bdaved]

Please try to remember that if you met these people in another context they might seem like decent caring individuals. I disagree with them. I think they're wrong, and they're saying bad things, but people are too complex for us to just say these people are bad. Maybe some are bad. But I've been wrong and said bad things too. Don't forget that good people can be wrong while bad people are being right.

[Sir681]

Really now! Anyone, and I mean anyone, if you met them in the right context might seem like a decent, caring individual. So that's just an empty platitude. These are the kinds of people who hang men, women and children by their necks until they're dead, or stood by in approval while it happened. Judging by their ages, it is very likely that they may have done so.

Whatever set of criteria you may use to slot someone into the category of 'good' or 'bad', you may want to include their actions, intents and attitudes. Just because they are old white people, possibly with children and grand children, it doesn't make them any less capable of doing horrible things to others who are not like them, or wishing that the worst kinds of atrocities may befall them.

They are not good people! Good people don't behave like that just because someone is different or has a different perspective from them.

[Sir681]

...men, women and children ... based on the colour of their skin ...

[bdaved]

You and I are susceptible to becoming just like them. If you or I feel enough hostility in our hearts for them, and you or I are in a setting where that hostility is encouraged, what could we be capable of doing? Read the comments on this site and see how much hostility you find. How is that better than what the Palin supporters are doing? And to turn your "empty platitude" around, anyone you meet in the right context might seem like a true fiend. I don't believe there's a special kind of people who do these kind of things. I believe there is a truly special kind of people who flat would not, but history has proven that far and away the majority of people are capable of being convinced that it is right and proper to do very wrong and improper things. I am not nearly righteous enough to pass judgment on these people.

[janellrcarter1]

I saw a photo of a tshirt today that gave me permission to wear without apology or reservation a tshirt I made a few weeks ago.

The photo was taken of the back of a man astride a motorcycle. Motorcycle sported a McCain/Palin bumper sticker. Man's tshirt bore the message, "N***** PLEASE!! It's WHITE house." Except on the tshirt, the 'N' word was spelled out -- in caps.

The message on my tshirt -- front and back -- says:

Why I'm for Obama
Family values (only one wife)
Bootstraps (used his own)
Pro-women (= pay for = work)
Good judgment (generals agree)
Economy (he DOES understand)

Now if anyone challenges me or makes a negative remark, I'll say it's
a whole lot nicer than one I saw on a McCain supporter that says (and
I'll recite what it says) and that it's given me one more reason to
vote for Sen. Obama.

[wandering girl]

"They live on lies."

more than that - they *forage* for them.

[steinem68]

Your second last paragraph says it all.
Having been raised in the Kennedy era, where dreams were once possible, (all peoples united and everyone to the moon), what a misery to see that not only does white trash brazenly demand "to rear its ugly head" , they also want to lead everyone in 2008 to hell.
How embarassing for the good American people to be dragged back under "60's violent past when most have progressed in mind and soul.
There are no excuses for white supremists, blatant racists and neo-nazi degenerates, whose only wish is to destabilize and destroy.
For McCain-Palin to be on stage with such criminals, is merely a snapshot of the years ahead.
Rich, and detached, not greatly educated, and a guy who lives for wars? The choice is most definitely, "Change We Need."

[optimismsflames]

All in all a nice article Mr. Dean. One constructive criticism......your case would be a lot stronger without all of the fat people and old people references. Those kinds of prejudice are just as bad. It leaves me with a little taste of the pot calling the kettle.......

[Ellis Dean - Huffpost Blogger]

You raise a valid point, optimismsflames. I was aware of the irony as I wrote the piece, though my intention in referencing age and size was not that their ideas or character be judged on those factors, but that their risk for violent action be re-evaluated -- and that other, less obvious risks (which are a result of their ideas and character) be recognized.

[ivorytower54]

Fair enough. But the size of your belly has very little to do with your abilty to squeeze a trigger!
I also hated all the fat references. Michael Moore? I am a 3XL Obama supporter. I used to be an XL Bill Clinton supporter, but I have to work so hard to make the ends meet that there is little time for exercise.:) My being fat is only marginally related to George Bush.

[blaqntelligence]

I get perturbed when the word ignorant is used to describe these people.
Ignorance is not knowing but teachable.
This shameful behavior is, as the author stated, willful stupidity.
They know better, they just choose not to do better.
They call themselves "real" Americans.
I call them drunk relatives who insist on answering the door.
The Ugly American.
A national embarrassment.

[mommadona]

Ahhhhh yes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5HqTGGEuKk

[NowWhatFolks]

One of my "favorite" phrases is "Willful Ignorance", and it's the most frustrating thing in the world, to be speaking to a normally intelligent person and have it kick in, usually when politics or religion come in to play.

[SuzyBee]

This story reminds me so much of some of the people I know here in Texas. I had been getting emails for months from "friends" and relatives "warning" me that Obama was a muslim among other things. Knowing something about muslims, due to living in the Middle East for years as an ex-pat, I looked into these "charges". I would then take every opportunity to try and patiently explain to these people that they were misinformed. It never works. Most of them get their only information via email chain letters and an occasional local newscast. Some of them could even be described as intelligent people in other circumstances. I gave up fighting and just started sending money to Obama's campaign, hoping that it would help in some battleground states. You would think thoughtful research would be all it takes to fight ignorance, but alas, not so. One relative told me that she didn't care what evidence there was to support what Barack was or wasn't, because she gauged their character by body language (does color speak?) and that God would tell her who to vote for. I'm ashamed that I can't get through to them, but I'm out of ideas.

[ivorytower54]

"thoughtful research"? How about snopes.com at a minimum?
I'm still responding with "Reply to all" and lettling them have it. It is starting to work. I live in oklahoma and two of my neighbors who were solidly McCain are now legitimately undecided.

[zanzig]

Yes, that's what I do: hit reply to all, with a link to snopes.com. No comment at all: most people are curious enough to open the link and read it, even if they don't digest the information. I can't say that I know what change that has made, but I am receiving fewer idiotic emails, if that helps.

[steinem68]

You can always leave Texas...I know dozens who have.

[mwestorca]

I was very proud of my 47 year old son who responded to a friend of the family who sent him the "Muslim" email.

The email that you forwarded about Barach Obama is unfounded, and untrue. Character assasination via forwarded email is common, unfortunate, and inappropriate . . . The email you forwarded me has been checked and identified as being false back when it first started circulating in 2007. It is a thinly veiled racist attack trying to destroy a political candidate because of his skin color and name rather than his life and accomplishments. The true 'Enemy Within' for the United States is not a political candidate, Black, white or other. It is rather, the racist attitudes that cause Americans to ignore our nation's constitution and rule of law. Differences of race and culture have caused many Americans to go with the wrong and immoral view that 'The Ends Justify the Means', and that we must do whatever it takes to protect ourselves from some outside evil. The Evil that we need to work hardest against is the insideous evil within our country of hated and racism that makes us willing to ignore justice and equality and follow paths of racism and hatred instead. Would Christ make this type of personal unfounded attack? In his day he stood strongly against those 'scribes and hypocrites' who espoused religion, but didn't have love in their hearts.

(My son's signature)

Your kids can make you proud even when they're middle-aged!