After weeks of increasingly divisive tactics in which the McCain campaign has employed everything short of overt racial slurs, I am shocked and appalled.
I don’t usually let politics get under my skin the way some people do, but recently the McCain-Palin rally has devolved into a celebration of intolerance. I find this offensive ““ not as a partisan, but as an American citizen.
Early last week, the New York Times reported on McCain-Palin rally attendees shouting, “kill him,” “off with his head,” “terrorist,” and “treason,” as well as the “uninhibited slinging of racial epithets.” What really offends me is not the fact that these types of people attend McCain-Palin rallies. What shocks and offends me (and what should shock and offend this entire nation) is that the McCain campaign may be sowing intolerance by employing “˜Willie Horton’ tactics against Barack Obama.
These divisive tactics have come in the form of stump remarks, negative television ads, and even “robocalls” where an automated voice calls people and says it has “some information about Barack Hussein Obama you don’t know,” and then goes on to say he takes money from lobbyists and that “We just can’t take a chance on Barrack Hussein Obama.”
The methods that the McCain campaign and supporters have employed have clearly fired up some traditional Republican voters who have come out in droves to cheer on their candidate of choice. McCain’s repudiation of these offensive remarks is too little too late; especially considering that it is his own tactics that are responsible for inciting what some might consider to be the worst campaign in American politics.
McCain, as of late, has crossed a line that threatens to erode his political career and moral character. I am not concerned that these individuals will vote against Obama. I am more concerned that Obama’s life may be endangered by an extremist who goes over the edge.
What really drove me to write this is an offensive prayer featured at a recent McCain-Palin rally. This prayer is just one of a long line of bigoted remarks that have recently headlined at McCain-Palin rallies.
Fox News reported that “an evangelical pastor supporting John McCain delivered a prayer” at a recent rally for the McCain-Palin ticket:
“I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their God ““ whether it is Hindu, Buddha, Allah ““ that [McCain’s] opponent wins, for a variety of reasons,” said the Rev. Arnold Conrad, former pastor of the Grace Evangelical Free Church.
“And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day,” he added.
While McCain continues to repudiate these remarks and others, he should make greater efforts to prevent them and take stronger stances in opposition. McCain will certainly face the political consequences for these assaults on Barack Obama’s character, if he has not already. The American people have shown that they are rejecting his negative tactics. Election day, which was once to be a referendum on Obama, will now be a referendum on John McCain and his ruthless, win-at-all-costs tactics. The American people deserve better!
Reed is a third-year political science student.