Filed under: Author - ACG,Culture,Politics | Tags: John McCain, Media, Political symbols, Racism, Sarah Palin
UPDATE: in the last presidential debate, McCain lied about Obama’s response to Lewis’ remarks. Obama did, in fact, repudiate the nastier elements of Lewis’ allegations shortly after they were made.
Amateurish, and not very nice
For the past week the candidates have been engaged in a kind of debate-through-intermediaries, as much within as between the campaigns: (1) Sarah Palin makes incredibly incendiary attacks, brushes off racist remarks from supporters, (2) John McCain calls Obama a decent guy (and gets booed), (3) Obama tells supporters he appreciates McCain’s kindness, and (4) Palin falls into line, praising Obama at a rally to still more boos.
Though booing is something Palin might have to get used to… Not without cause. Anyways, moving on.
Reporter upon reporter and pundit upon pundit have all decried McCain/Palin’s new old strategy – incite hatred, turn out the base, to hell with the rest of America. But when Georgia Representative John Lewis (D-GA) joined the crowd, that was too much. Lewis (who was my congressman when my family lived in Georgia) is a noted firebrand, but the first part of his comments are directly on target:
What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse
Things only get troublesome in the second part.
George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.
The comparison between McCain and the justly reviled segregationist is perhaps below the belt. But it’s not entirely off-base. The Grand Strategy of the McCain/Palin campaign is, without a doubt, distraction: they need to “turn the page on the economy,” and what better way than to start a sub silentio appeal to America’s subtle racisms by conjuring the image of the “radical,” untrustworthy black man? For proof, one need look no farther than Palin’s careful rhetoric when discussing William Ayers. The alleged link between Ayers and Obama isn’t racist and nasty because of the truth of the matter asserted – after all, at most it suggests that Obama is friends with a reformed terrorist-turned professor & model citizen. The Devil is in the *ahem* subtext, as Palin’s use of words with special contextual racial meaning suggests (h/t NPR, and the New York Times agrees). The Ayers incident, as presented by Palin, may not be openly racist; but it might as well be this election’s Willie Horton.
Perhaps this argument is a little hard to swallow. I’m admittedly pretty mad. But McCain’s self-righteous indignation is even harder to swallow (especially hypocritical elements in bold blue!):
Congressman John Lewis’ comments represent a character attack against Gov. Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale.
The notion that legitimate criticism of Sen. Obama’s record and positions could be compared to Gov. George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.
I call on Sen. Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election.
Of course, McCain wouldn’t know anything about character attacks, and he’s at every juncture opposed “outrageous and divisive comments,” sticking to only legitimate criticism. And Lord knows he’d never want to shut down debate about – or, say, turn the page on – substantive issues. Representative Pot? Hi, yes, it’s Senator Kettle on the line for you. He says you’re black.
Oops. Bad word choice? At least Obama’s response to “the Lewis incident” is right on.
