This isn't politics, this is cold water in your face to wake you up.

[lagilman]

Taken from various news outlets: Apparently, the McCain/Palin ticket thinks that the way to campaign is to stir up hatred and fear, so that your audience shouts out things like "kill him!" in response to their goading, and rile people up enough to spew a racial epithet at an African American television tech just doing his job, and tell him to "sit down, boy."

That? Was American in the bad old days. We call them the bad old days because they were bad. Racism and religionism and sexism were things we were supposed to be evolving away from. Remember?

Fear is no excuse. Fear is fear. You go through it and come out the other side and you don't do it over the bodies and hearts of your neighbors, your co-workers, your fellow human beings.

And for those of us who care about such things: No, the Palin 'rape kit' scandal has not been debunked. "Sadly for Palin partisans, they got schooled on the Wasilla specifics by a 20-year-old blogger and junior at George Washington University who did what so many on the right can't quite pull off: fact-based reporting. He proved without a doubt that Palin, as mayor, signed off on the initiative that forced rape victims or their insurance companies to foot the bill for the post-assault exam kits."

And this is the woman who has the nerve to demand that other women support her? Because she's For Us? God save us from our enemies, then....

Comments

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I read once that nearly every time we have a choice to make, one that can't be made based on logic alone, we end up choosing to act on fear or to act on love.

It's no surprise the Republicans are using fear to try to sway the vote, they've been doing it for years. Fear of the weird hippie. Fear of crime. Fear of drug users. Fear of terrorists. The theme has been constant pretty much my whole life, though the specific identity of the bogey-man has been changed from tine to time. And, too often, the Democrats have bought into the fear-mongering and used similar rhetoric and similar scare tactics.

That's one reason I'm so hopeful that Obama will win this election--someone who talks about hope, about collective action, about sitting down and talking with people, even with our enemies--the attitude, the rhetoric and the behavior are NOT fear based. And it's a great fresh breeze that, IMHO, could actually bring change.

[severedscythe.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't even live in the country and I want to smack her face a bit.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Personally, that's a hell I'm willing to be in, since it's quite clear that her idea of heaven wouldn't let me in for other reasons anyways.

*sigh*

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

The reason McCain & co. campaign that way is because it works pretty well. Most people work on first-circuit survival issues, and in that worldview, fear is compelling and different is dangerous. That's frustrating to those of us who prefer logic and practicality, but the real question is whether there are enough of us to outweigh them.

Re: *sigh*

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

In general, the "public" is not made up of critical thinkers. I cringe when I think of what they voted in to the White House the last 2 elections. I hope the critical thinkers will outweigh the non-critical thinkers this time, but I'm not sure they will. Certainly, my family thinks McCain/Palin is the next best thing since sliced wheat bread.

Re: *sigh*

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

The voters didn't vote That Person into the White House; the first time the Supreme Court, majority appointed by the likes of Richard M. Nixon, Reagan, and Bush I, in a decision which was far from unanimous, spited Florida election law and appointed him. The second time involved vote fraud in Ohio (to the tune of the Croby Sill and Nash song Ohio. Just substitute someone contemporary for "Nixon".

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Palin was described to me by an American friend when she was selected as 'stupider than a sackful of mooseshit and more dangerous than a hair-dryer dropped in the bath' - an analysis which is coming to look increasingly trenchant.