In 2000 the wedge issue was Clinton’s affair (even though Clinton wasn’t running). In 2004 it was terrorists — and scary gay people who were coming to marry your sons. In 2008? Combine 2004’s terrorist scare tactics with 19th century racism, and there you have the reinvention of the Republican campaign.
I can’t even watch anymore. The people who show up at McCain-Palin rallies, the people who believe everything they’re told, ask no questions, leap to bizarre conclusions with no evidence at all, make crap up right off the top of their heads, and espouse solid, simple racism. They speak like brainwashed members of some bizarre cult; and like Scientologists, they claim repression or unfair tactics if they are questioned in any way.
This video scares the hell out of me. Completely insane people parroting total lies told by Sarah Palin and John McCain using the exact talking points put out there by the campaign via Fox News. People voting on the basis of race and religion — and one thing that these people are showing is something that the media seems to be ignoring: that a man with the middle name Hussein must be a Muslim, and if you are a Muslim, you must be a terrorist. These people think that each and every Muslim person on the planet (watch out — there are about 1.2 BILLION Muslims in the world and they’re all coming to get you! Boo!) is a terrorist.
I am flabbergasted and disgusted. These people are jingoistic, racist xenophobes. Plain and simple. And in 2008, this is the new base of the Republican party.
“McCain is for this country, Obama is not.”
“Hammas is for Obama.”
“Clinton pushed the minority loans.”
“We don’t know who Obama is.”
“You don’t know who Obama is.”
Update: found this telling quote this evening, from a spectator at a North Carolina Nascar event: “I don’t think the United States is ready for a black person to be president,” said Lucille Anderson, 73, from Lawsonville. “I think the blacks would be mean to us … they’d probably take us over.”
