An Open Letter to John McCain

Senator John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.

At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.

Shame!

John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain.

You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.

John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.

John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever.

We will hold you responsible.

This post first ran in the Baltimore Sun as an op-ed on Oct 10, 2008. Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. Now in paperback

Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer

Comments

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

AMEN Brother!

This behavior and rhetoric is Hateful.

This behavior and rhetoric is Dangerous.

This behavior and rhetoric is not just unChristian, it is Amoral.

This behavior and rhetoric is un-American.

[IncarcerateBushEtAl]

Brilliant as usual, sir.
Based on your insightful posts I am going to buy your book this weekend--I bet it will be a page turner!!

[Jmaan33]

I have lost ALL respect for John McCain....­...War Hero? Whatever. The last thing this guy will be remembered for is for being a racist. And he can NEVER take that back! What a sad old man.

[kisskiss]

Perfectly stated. Thank you.

[deezerd]

Amen, and AMEN, Frank. Well spoken.

[tgatsby]

Thank you so much, Mr. Schaeffer, for writing this letter. You are a logical and calm voice in a sea of fear and anxiety. In 2000, I supported John McCain and I was happy when he was chosen to run for president this time around. I thought that between him and Obama, it wouldn't matter who won the election because America would have a chance at having a great leader. But I have come to realize there is only one leader for our great country, Barack Obama.

[artislifemiami]

Thank you, Mr. Schaeffer. We the People have endured the longest 8 years imaginable, a stunningly relentless and vulgar "attack from within" of all that we have ever held dear, and seem to feel lost within a thick cloud of confusion. We are sick at heart of the lies without end. We have lost our native capacity to be impressed by their scale, audacity, or even inhuman lack of shame. We seem to have our hands full mourning the human cost.

Yet it is not really in our nature, nor satisfying, to retreat into cynicism. We are, after all, a people who have tasted and cherished freedom in a truly remarkable way. Like Agent Mulder, "We want to believe." We have some healing to do, and can only hope God to be given the opportunity to start on that great and good work together, as one proud people, before the bottom falls out and it all caves in.

The power of a single decent voice, calling out for clarity, cannot be overstated. Senator McCain will indeed read your open letter, as will much of America. I can only hope that all of us, Republican, Democrat, and "Other" alike, will agree that fear provides no sound basis for critical decisions, that inflammatory strategies are neither justifiable nor controllable in their consequences, and that all Americans, inclusive of Senator Obama, are deserving of the fundamental respect of personal safety for themselves and their families.

Thank you and God bless you.

[celest]

I too thank Mr. Schaeffer for being forthright and printing the truth. I am a 78 year old grandmother and registered Democrat, but have also voted for the person rather than the party. After listening to the attacks being spewed out of Sarah Palin's mouth, my mind is made up for Nov. 4th. It has been made up, but this clinches it. I am a Christian as she claims to be, but a Christian would not fall into the ugliness that she is stooping to, speaking half truths and no truths. When I hear things at her rallies such as "kill him" or "cut off his head" I see that she is fanning the flame of hatred that sorry to say still exists in this country. And John McCain is so desperate that he is allowing her to...actua­lly, I don't know what to call it, other than he is pimping Palin to do his dirty work....so much for "country first". A concerned citizen and God Bess you and God Bless America!

[ThanksMatt]

Thank you, Mr. Schaeffer this is so necessary! Please write an even pointeder piece if John McCain does not change the tone of his campaign immediately.

[eden4barack08]

Looks like he tried today and got booed by his crowd, for saying "nice" things about Obama.
It's hard to put the Genie back in the bottle once you've let it out, but I hope McCain is sincere and keeps at it. He should also call his pit bull off though.

[fallsgonnakillya]

Thank you, Mr. Schaeffer. Thank you.

[mdj20000]

I am so afraid right now.

If there is anyone on the boards from the 60's, could you please tell me if this is how you felt then? I don't understand how I can feel some much hope and despair at the same time but I do.

[tgatsby]

I was born in the early sixties, so I don't remember how it felt during that time, but I think up until Kennedy's assassination, people didn't think about things like that. I don't think people were afraid because it had never gone that far. But we have John and Bobby, Malcolm X and King as examples of what hatred can do in our country. That's why it's so frightening for us right now. You're not alone, I'm afraid too. Mostly I'm afraid of what our country is going to be like when all of this is over. Hope this helped.

[sgarc28]

I think John McCain should change his name to Joe McCarthy. I fear every day that the sixties will rejoin us in the worst way, not the Weather Underground but John, Bobby and Martin repeats. How can someone be so irresponsible that they would put their opposition in harms way. My mother always told me that we were in the minority of the idealism of the sixties. I truly believe it today.

[Anastasia08]

Like "apples of gold in settings of silver is a word aptly spoken." Thank you so much for your excellent words, Mr. Schaeffer.

[belikejeanvaljean]

Thank you for saying what so many of us are thinking. I am very fearful of the hatred towards Barack Obama that is being stoked by the McCain campaign and its surrogates. I hope Obama has the best security team on earth.

[kozmik]

Three cheers for Mr. Schaeffer.

The only question is why it was allowed to go on for so long while the rest of our spineless media slumbered. There should have been not one letter like this, but 1000, from all corners of respectable media and politics, left to right.

[BabsfromKansas]

The son of William F. Buckley has decided to vote for a Democrat.

'This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become ira.scible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?"

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-10/the-conservative-case-for-obama/