Sunday, October 12, 2008
Playing the Race Card for All It Is Worth
"Violence in the voice is often only the death rattle of reason in the throat."
--John Frederick Boyes
Call them nuts, loonies, fanatics, extremists, white supremacists, what you will. The fact is that they exist in all societies. Here in America there is no dearth of them. Normally, they remain on the fringe; their rants and raves do not receive much attention. But now, with the presidential election 23 days away, the lunatic fringe is being assiduously courted by Republican nominee John McCain and his vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin. It is Palin, as McCain's attack dog, who is making most of the rabble-rousing speeches.
While they deny that their objective is to incite violence that is exactly what they are doing with their outright lies and distortion of truth. And because the Democratic contender is black, their veiled messages of hatred is resonating with bigots in America.
At this point, their dirty campaign appears to be not making much headway. However, there is always the unknown, unquantifiable number of voters to whom the color of Obama's skin overrides everything else. So the race is far from locked up despite the polls that show Obama ahead. And in worst case scenario, an unbalanced person in the mob could very well try something drastic. Let us hope that the Secret Service will prevent any such calamity from taking place. We have had enough of political assassinations. Are McCain and Palin aware of the impact, and possible consequences, of their hate mongering? You betcha.
