McCain's Base

I don’t know why so many supposedly well-informed commentators have been acting startled for the past week at Palin and McCain followers being whipped into a hate-filled lather, booing and shouting “traitor” and “terrorist!” when they hear the name “Obama.” You’d think, after reading the recent writings of Kathleen Parker and Dana Milbank, nobody had ever heard of Rush Limbaugh, or Ann Coulter, or Michael Savage. You’d think nobody ever watched Fox News. You’d think Free Republic.com, Townhall, and the comments section on many political websites were encrypted secrets readable only by a select few who’ve been entrusted with discreetly doled out passwords.

When McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate, he sank a shaft directly into a fetid, bubbling sewer that’s been cheerfully kept at a boil by Republican Party leadership ever since the Reagan administration.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/">Take a look at this.

And this.

And this.

What we’re seeing here is the power of narrative. As George Lakoff pointed out in his recent book, storytelling is a powerful medium of communication, and like all effective approaches, it can be misused. The narrative that has been steadily and not so subtly sold by the right for the past eight years has been that the Democrats are Communists, are Socialists, are “soft” on terrorism to the point of being complicit, are traitors, are America haters and are in fact, dangerous enemies of this country.

And now there are sentient human beings declaring themselves shocked, I tell you, shocked at the behavior of some Republicans when, for the first time since 9/11, they’re faced with the very real likelihood of their candidate losing a Presidential election to one of those treasonous, dangerous, America-hating Democrats. And a dark-skinned one with a foreign sounding name!

Look at these videos. These people aren’t kidding. They have spent the past two decades listening to Rush Limbaugh and reading Ann Coulter and they are genuinely convinced that an Obama presidency will be a catastrophe.

What will they do if and when he is elected?

And the rest of the country will turn against them. And that may be how we finally clear out what's been lurking beneath the surface all this time.

I seriously hope it doesn't come to that, but these people never cease to amaze me. And they say the left is angry.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081010/pl_politico/14445

Notice the article fails to mention the "Kill him!" yell.

These people are rabid. They are not rational. They do not try to analyze anything.

The asshole who said "Obama is a terrorist." is just repeating what he has heard. Is there anything factual about the statement. No. And 75% of Americans know that. It's the 25%, the same 25% who still think Dubya is doing a fantastic job, who are lining up for the McAnus-Palin rallies.

Be prepared to defend yourself and your country, folks. When Obama is elected these "patriots" will try to rise up. To save America, you know.

We are in a Civil War that will be ignited in full regardless of who is elected. Be sure and thank your local Republican and Bill O;Reilly and Sean Hannity and Pills Limbaugh, etc. for all of this.

I will have more fear of an assassination attempt on Obama than any other president since Lincoln. The rightwing nut jobs will fan the flames of hate into every unstable lunatic in the country. I just hope Obama doesn't end up a martyr.

It's down to the "base" stirring up the "base". In the face of more pressing issues, the usual formula of exploiting social "wedge" issues and outright character assassination aren't working this time. So these people are pissed and being egged on by the right-wing media and the McCain campaign. What we're seeing is racist and xenophobic sentiment being stirred up in the hope that it catches on with mainstream America. I sense that this display of outright hatred will have a further negative impact on the McCain campaign and the GOP in general. It's hard to predict how they will react to Obama's election. Many on the right will assume the role of "victim", particularly those most affected by the economic downturn since they are also buying off on the propaganda pitch that the Democrats are somehow responsible for the mess we're in. Bottom line: Barrack Obama should be afforded all the Secret Service protections available to him.

Our standing in the world has tanked.

We are in a devastating war, costing us blood and ruining our economy.

We are on the verge of a complete economic meltdown.

All we need is Americans turning against Americans to make our destruction complete. McCain/Palin are trying to lead us down a slippery slope. A House divided cannot stand.

allusion to Lakoff's description of what they are doing.
If you were to read narratives of what Germany was like just before and during Hitler's rise, McSame and the barracuda MUST come to mind. They are following his footsteps on how to gain power. It is scary as hell, and as was said above, we cannot be so naive as to assume this will stop when Obama is elected.
I fear that the violence may erupt and the result will be horrifying.

Those videos made my blood run cold....McSame and the barracuda are instigating things that will blow out of control, and we will all pay the price. This could be Nazi Germany all over again.

For a very long time now, they have been able to pretend that all was civil, and only a few "wackos" on the radio were the "problem".. The intense focus on this race and the live coverage of the events, have "blown up in their faces".. They cannot deny "KILL HIM", when it's heard LIVE by millions of people.

Internet scrutiny and "obsessiveness" has FORCED them to acknowledge what we have known for a very long time..

Add to that, the fact that so many "mainstream" media venues have actually HIRED some of the rabid right wingers..Pat Buchanan, Bill Bennett, Glenn Beck, etc. These guys cannot be "on their best behavior" all the time, and sooner or later they "go off" and expose themselves on national tv:)

It really does put one in mind of Frankenstein's monster. Lots of dead flesh stolen from the graves where they belonged, artificially resurrected by a power that man can't quite harness.

I had a conversation with a guy a few weeks ago who seemed to think "they're going to kill him" was a sage rationale for not voting for Obama. I think, in part, that he was trying to sound jadedly cool, but his virtual shrug of the shoulder was almost as offensive to me as the message that the presence of a death threat by itself could deliver the election to the opposition.

Others I've spoken with or heard make reference to this fear, both McCain and Obama supporters, have tended to drop their voices when doing so, because, obviously any such attempt, let along a successful assassination would have such a destructive result for all of us -- no matter whom we support politically.

And while most of us would be momentarily united in deploring the act, far too many of us would, as you've pointed out, push it away as simply the result of insanity, of inexplicable depravity rather than allow ourselves to consider that the hatred being fomented by ranting tv and radio "personality pundits" and anonymous blog bloviators urges and rewards a sense of righteousness on the part of madmen for responding to vicious rhetoric with acts that shed blood.

Their fury is palpable. The radical anti-choice people already have their hit men & martyrs..The "he'll take our guns" groups already have "Christian Identity" compounds..

Timothy McVeigh has had their highest body-count so far.