Slow Release Poison

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Slow Release Poison

by digby

This is upsetting. John McCain and Sarah W. Palin know that Barack Obama is not a terrorist (well, maybe Palin doesn't ... she's Queen of the tribe that believes this crap) and yet they are purposefully inciting people who are obviously dumb enough to believe it.

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I think this is dangerous stuff and far beyond the pale. We saw what happened in Tennessee recently. It was the act of a mentally disturbed person, for sure. But it was also explicitly political --- he had been trained to blame liberals for his woes and so when he went out searching for someone to shoot, he knew who to target. He'd been reading books which claimed liberals are treasonous and unAmerican, written by people who are treated as being perfectly respectable on television and are welcomed into the highest circles of power. His act was his own responsibility, but those who turn normal political differences into bloodsport for personal profit contributed to the madness.

We are entering a turbulent period in our country. Validating a bogus accusation that your political rival is a terrorist in our current environment is the most irresponsible thing I've seen a campaign do in many a year. They know they are very likely going to lose this election. And McCain certainly knows that the main reason he is losing is because of the dramatic failures of fellow failed Republican George W. Bush. But even knowing that his candidacy was always very likely doomed is not stopping him from releasing this poison into the bloodstream of the body politic, a poison which will be with us for a long time to come. I guess that's what McCain means when he says that Americans should fight for a cause greater than themselves. That cause, evidently, is him.