Holding McCain and Palin responsible

I think it is time we all -- as a civilized nation -- tell McCain and Palin in no uncertain terms that we will hold them personally responsible for any violence that results from the hatred they are deliberately inciting at their campaign rallies.

We have seen this before. We are not going back there.

Republican Andrew Sullivan (with more bipartisan voices joining every day) warned McCain to back off the hate rhetoric:

McCain and Palin have decided to stoke this rage, to foment it, to encourage paranoid notions that somehow Obama is a "secret" terrorist or Islamist or foreigner. These are base emotions in both sense of the word.

But they are also very very dangerous. This is a moment of maximal physical danger for the young Democratic nominee. And McCain is playing with fire. If he really wants to put country first, he will attack Obama on his policies - not on these inflammatory, personal, creepy grounds. This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin.

For God's sake, McCain, stop it. For once in this campaign, put your country first.

Republican Frank Schaffer wrote an angry OP-ED that ran today in the Baltimore Sun:

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.

At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.

Shame!

John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain.

You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.

John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.

Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever.

We will hold you responsible.

Yes we will hold you both responsible, although I greatly fear that scenario (and McCain - if he really loved this country - should fear it too. Palin is probably too ignorant, too much the religious intolerant to truly grasp the danger in her words. McCain knows better -- and apparently doesn't care.)

This nation will explode like a powder keg if anything happens to Barack, or if there is any violence at the polls. People are already so angry and anxious that it won't take much for everything to dissolve into violence and chaos. To deliberately incite such behavior is reckless and very dangerous.

As a lifelong student of the Civil War, I can't think of anything worse than 'neighbor vs. neighbor.' And I condemn anyone who would deliberately stir that pot. Shame is too mild a word. Can someone who deliberately incites violence be labeled a 'terrorist' himself?

Is that what you want Mr. McCain -- for this entire nation to dissolve into violence? Are you willing to risk the destruction of our entire nation just to get elected?

And to think I once respected you!

Just STOP. It's not simply shameful and unbecoming -- you are endangering your political opponent and our nation.

If you are indeed losing this election, then for God's sake lose with at least a little moral dignity - dignity befitting a Vietnam vet and former POW.

Nation before party (and certainly before your own political power-trip.)

Palin panders to the 'violent hater' vote

Palin at a recent rally in Florida:

"I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day," she said.

"Booooo!" replied the crowd.

"I knew you guys would react that way, okay," she continued. "So I was reading the New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago."

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama "pals around" with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin's allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Inciting violence towards an opposing political candidate? My, Sarah -- why don't you just burn a cross on the stage while you're at it?

Hate-talk TV and radio hosts seem to get away with this all the time, even when it leads to murder. Now we have it from political candidates.

When I was a child, in a state that has decades of experience with Klan activities, the KKK and fellow hate organizations were tracked and pursued by the FBI for exactly this kind of hate-inciting speech. Today our government openly tolerates it -- but only from the extreme right.

We live in strange times indeed when peaceful demonstrators are attacked by black-armored police and arrested without charge; and a vice presidential candidate can openly incite violence towards the democratic candidate for president in front of the police, the media, the FBI and the Secret Service. No consequences whatsoever.

What the hell? Aren't we supposed to be a nation of laws?

So Sarah, let me get this straight (if I can dumb myself down to your reptilian level and perhaps communicate.) You're sliding in the polls. You're getting desperate. The charm and the winking didn't work, and both you and your running mate McCain have each lost your debates. Obviously the people aren't buying what you guys are selling.

So you accuse Obama of hanging around with terrorists, deliberately inciting violence towards a political opponent.

You obviously heard the man in the crowd shout 'kill him!' and you just let it slide, didn't you? Is that the reaction you were looking for? I see you didn't miss a beat, but kept right on stirring that poisonous pot. I've seen your kind before, but seldom without the sheets and burning crosses.

This is your answer for America? If you can't win any other way, incite some wacko into killing your opponent? What -- the nasty smear commercials are no longer enough for you people?

This is what comes from removing all consequences for hate-mongering in this country.

UPDATE: The Secret Service is investigating the man who shouted 'kill him!' Hopefully they will also gently suggest to both McCain and Palin that inciting this behavior is not to be allowed.