Shortly before death, bodies engage in a riot of convulsions and hemorrhages, some disturbingly visible, some internal and unseen. There is a dance of extreme violence that occurs in a living organism as it "rages against the dying of the light," to paraphrase Dylan Thomas. And then, there is often a moment of calm as death sets in, and the organism relaxes its fierce grip on life. Endorphins flood the body and the grimacing mask of struggle, many times, goes slack. And then you die.
If you've ever been at someone's dying bedside, you know what I mean.
It's worth holding this imagery in mind when looking at the videos coming back from the campaign trail of recent McCain-Palin rallies. Of course the candidates have gone negative -- that's what candidates do when they have nothing worth saying. It's not the negative paragraphs larded into the stump speeches that are so disconcerting about the footage we're seeing. It's the mob. And the tacit approval of the mob emanating from McCain himself.
Some lowlights: Several McCain supporters on their way into a rally in Pennsylvania actually call Obama a "terrorist," and one answers the question "Why do you think he's a terrorist?" with the retort "Look at the bloodlines. Look at his name."
A voice clearly screams "Off with his head!" in reference to Obama when Sarah Palin hammers away at the Bill Ayers connection. Palin does nothing to discourage the call.
A questioner at one of McCain's "Town Hall" rallies refers to Obama and Nancy Pelosi as the "socialists" who are "taking over our country."
A line of McCain supporters on their way in to a rally in Ohio heckle the Obama supporters and journalists across the street with cries of "You need to go die" and "Commie faggots," and several call Obama a terrorist, a socialist, a traitor, and more.
It's easy to view this footage and feel panic welling up inside. Easy to feel that a tide is rising in the heartland of fear and anger, ignorance and violence, that is on the verge of flooding the ballot boxes and carrying John McCain and Sarah Palin to the White House.
What's important to bear in mind is that these are hardly "swing voters." These are the 19 percent of the country who might yet call themselves "Bush Republicans," even after the verdict of history. Bush Republicans are not the concern, in the end. Reagan Democrats are. As McCain's own former top strategist John Weaver was quoted as saying: "Please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive."
What's happening at these rallies is a series of convulsions and spasms no less primordial than those we make at the end of life -- a kind of death dance. The death of John McCain, American Hero -- who may be hearing plaudits from the pitchfork-wielding mob, but who is hearing nothing but disappointment and disapproval from those Republicans and Independents who once held him in such esteem. And in the throes of that death, McCain is waltzing with a dying breed of sad old white Americans, whose tragedy continues to be their belief that those who have fleeced them were their greatest friends, and those who might plausibly have their interests at heart politically are a bunch of commie faggots. These rallies smell of rot, the stench rising from these hollow crowds carries the odor of lynch mobs and blacklisters, Father Coughlin and the Silent Majority.
But no more are these folks a Silent Majority. They are a loud, vocal, ugly minority. They are literally a dying breed. And when we write their obituary in the next few years, there really won't be a wet eye in the house.
Cue the Skynyrd: Ooh, that smell, can't you smell that smell? The smell of death surrounds you.
What is terrifying about these images, these sounds, these ugly days, is not what might befall Barack Obama at the ballot box. It is that unthinkable thing that we all think about, that Palin and McCain are conjuring like a dark specter. The game McCain is playing is as real as Russian Roulette and might have the same outcome. David Gergen has warned on CNN that "real violence" could be the bitter fruit of these dark electoral arts. "There is a free-floating sort of whipping-around anger that could really lead to some violence. And I think we're not far from that," Gergen said. "I really worry when we get people -- when you get the kind of rhetoric that you're getting at these rallies now. I think it's really imperative the candidates try to calm people down."
The dire question that seems to be rising is this one: How many more crowds can McCain whip up this way and not expect to stumble on the loaded chamber?