A Domestic Terrorist's Take On The Debates

With watery red eyes that had him looking as if he'd just smoked a bowl of medical marijuana, Senator John McCain might have made me feel sorry for him.

I'm far from a conservative, as far as the suburbs of Honolulu are from the streets of Brooklyn. But this year I was willing to give John McCain a fair hearing. "Change is coming", he had said in St. Paul and, weary of politics as usual, I was genuinely interested to see if he and the Republican Party were willing to back it up.

But last night I finally gave in. I broke. I was stomping around the house, scaring the kids, yelling at the radio and the television, and generally not digesting my dinner.

Here's why. We're now past silly season and into shitty season. Falling down in the polls like Michael Douglas, Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin have gone negative, unleashing fear out of their little box of horrors.

McCain argued last night that he has "repudiated every time someone has been out of line." But he continues to allow his VP nominee -- someone CNN's Leslie Sanchez once said was "a vice president for the rest of us" -- to insinuate Obama is not like the rest of us. He continues to flog non-stories about ACORN, a federation of community organizations working for poor people led by a woman of color, and Bill Ayers, a former Weather Underground radical who now is a respected voice in education.

McCain and Palin are betting that those who believe Obama is Arab or Muslim -- and please so what if he were? -- will also be scared of community organizers in poor communities and communities of color who have registered over a million new voters. Just for perspective, the false registrations -- which afflict every voter registration campaign -- represent less than half of one percent of all the new registrations -- a pretty good rate, if you ask me.

McCain and Palin are betting that those who believe Obama is down with terrorists -- because he actually lived and went to school in Indonesia once and what's up with that middle name? -- are still scared of 60s activists who have become distinguished professors and respected community leaders focusing on improving education for poor, inner-city students. Why focus on the real issue of how to fix the educational system for the nation's future, when you can draw people back to the spectacle of battles that are 40 years old?

Full disclosure: I've knocked on doors and phone-banked for ACORN. I've written the Afterword for Bill Ayers' new book, and I was honored that he asked. So call me a domestic terrorist threatening to destroy the fabric of American democracy.

But I don't think I'm alone.

Voter registration fraud doesn't mean that Mickey Mouse will show up and try to vote on November 4th. Voter suppression, however, is an active Republican strategy that's been in place since the 1964 Voting Rights Act expanded enfranchisement. Is there any wonder why election protection groups feel they need to be in communities of color, working-class people, and immigrants, and not in, say, Salt Lake City?

And if we want to talk Bill Ayers, let's start with education. Ayers has quietly done important work in Chicago and earned the respect of the best education leaders in the country, liberals and conservatives alike.

McCain, on the other hand, asserted last night that the country had finally arrived at equal access to education, apparently unaware that school segregation has climbed since the Reagan era to levels unseen since the eve of Brown vs. Board of Education.

In his effort to push vouchers, he confused them with charter schools and lied -- with a big smile -- about Washington D.C. superintendent Michelle Rhee's position on them. McCain simply doesn't seem to have as much knowledge or passion on education and higher education as he does about Obama's supposedly scary relationships.

And here is the thing. No one really cares about my friend Bill Ayers and no one really cares about ACORN except for the right-wing nuts and racists in the party, the kind of folks who show up at rallies to yell "Kill him!" when Obama's name is mentioned. Instead I think most voters, like me, want to know how the war can be ended, the economy be turned around, and the education system be fixed.

But McCain, despite his "I'm not George Bush" zinger, seemed more intent upon bringing back the ideas of the past. At times, he sounded like a GOP greatest hits compilation.

When the discussion turned to abortion, for instance, he said, "We have to change the culture of America," he said. It was a conscious echo of Pat Buchanan's famous 1992 culture war speech, the singular text of the right-wing backlash.

McCain tried to paint Obama as a tax-and-spend liberal, a throwback to the days when the elder Bush made Michael Dukakis ashamed of the "l-word". And he revived Reagan-era disses -- "class warfare" and "spreading the wealth" -- to describe Obama's economic plans.

Of course after four decades in which the wealth gap has yawned and a month in which government has set aside nearly a trillion dollars to bail out Wall Street, class warfare and spreading the wealth don't sound so bad to lots of middle-class and working-class voters.

No, Senator McCain, you're not George W. Bush. Yes, you've been a warrior and you remain ready to fight. But you don't look like you're fighting for the future. You look like you're still fighting the past.

This was originally posted at Vibe.com. For more, check the November issue.

Follow Jeff Chang on Twitter: www.twitter.com/zentronix

Comments

[ozofjakes]

More Kool-Aid any one?

[ozofjakes]

Obama has displayed a patern of using radical left wing people and organizations and people to climb into power and then conveniently disowning them when they come into the public eye. Ayers, Rev. Wright and Acorn are just the tip of the iceberg. It is not so bad that he ascocisted with these people/groups but his story keeps changing about his involvement with them and he has been given a pass by the media about all of this. If Acorn were a republican organization they would be crucified by the press. Couple Obama's acorn involvement with the fact that his campaign is trying to get georgia's new voter ID law overturned and it paints an entirely diferent picture about how far the ACORN scandal goes. His supporters continuially practice politics of personal destruction and trying to tear down anyone who does not agree with Obama. The words "right wing nut job" are thrown around quite freequently to describe anyone who is not a loyal Obomunist. This is not change we need, it is change that is tearing apart the country.

[feo]

Then it's an odd thing that John McCain very recently praised ACORN for the work it does. He said something to the effect that ACORN is the sort of group that makes America great. What is he, just another flip-flopper. Or out and out liar?

[littlepuffycloud]

Accept the fact that no matter what he says or does, Senator O is never going to gain the trust or respect of some Americans. Sadly, while O loses their votes, they lose so much more by refusing to look at America as we really are and not how they wish it still was. Time has left McCain behind through no fault of his own I guess. His supporters are missing being part of an American awakening to reclaim the freedoms and truths of which we used to be so proud. SOME older white people are still afraid of a black man being president. My own 75 yr old mother told me today that even though she is voting for OBama, she 'just doesn't trust him.' When I pressed her for reasons, she said she is not really sure why. She thinks McCain is too old and Palin scares her. And she wants to get rid of Karl Rove. For REAL she said that. Those who let their fear prevent them from voting for the future will be stuck in the past and never feel part of Freeing America from the Clutches of the Likes of Bush/Cheney.

[Glenn1441]

Mr. Chang,

You are either being disingenuous, or, you've only just returned from a tour of outer space since McCain clinched the GOP nomination.

Am I to believe that you've only now decided that 'Change is Coming' isn't a politics-as-usual stunt -- AFTER the addition of Sarah Palin to the McCain ticket? Am I to believe that you, a talented writer, observer of contemporary culture, and friend of progressive educator William Ayres did not pick up on the covert call to murderous racism in Palin's RNC speech -- the same speech that quotes Westbrook Pegler, author -- and most noteworthy -- infamous racist and anti-Semite who gleefully called for the assassination of Robert Kennedy at the hands of some 'white patriot from the southern tier?'

If you missed that, then surely the moment McCain and his woefully unqualified VP choice took to the campaign trail with a grab bag of incendiary speeches, backed by equally venomous ads, you awoke to the stench emanating from their rallies, discernible to most even through the digital airwaves?

If I've mistaken cynicism, irony or technique for insincerity, forgive me (yes, genuinely). However, I do live in Brooklyn and I can tell you that my friends -- some of the most influential artists, writers and filmmakers of their generation, and I, read your post in a state of disbelief.

[goosie29]

Me 2

[demfriend]

The debate last night was both sad and frightening. McCain had his attacks at the ready and was determined no matter what to bring them on. His "Joe the Plumber" was mentioned over 26 times the majority lke 21 times by him. The facination with someone who can make more than I will ever make and who we now know has had tax liens irritated me. I wanted more about reality and not some "Joe Blow" who I care nothing about. Even less now that he has done McCain's ad. But the whole debat which the moderator had promised would be where the candidates "had to answer every question" more reminded me of the VP one when Palin answered her own questions and went back to them to avoid the new ones. McCain learned that trick. His attack more and feigned hurt was also over the top. How can he not hear and see the level of hate and racism in especially Palin's ralles? To have Rep Lewis put down like he did was an insult beyond any before as Rep lewis lived the race riots. He knows from where he speaks. McCain not only makes me ill he scares me as much as the terrorists he lies about.