Yes, these are dangerous times. The danger is typified by news reports of two skinheads being arrested for concocting a plot to assassinate Sen. Barack Obama. They also planned to shoot another 88 Black people, and decapitate 14 more. They were armed, and
Yes, these are dangerous times. The danger is typified by news reports of two skinheads being arrested for concocting a plot to assassinate Sen. Barack Obama. They also planned to shoot another 88 Black people and decapitate 14 more. They were armed, and their manifesto acknowledged that they would probably die in the process.
That disclosure came on the heels of a white female worker in the Sen. John McCain organization in Pennsylvania claiming that she was accosted by “a large Black man” who then beat her up when he saw a McCain sticker on her car and who carved a “B” on her cheek (though it was backwards). She later confessed that it was all a hoax–no Black man, no beating, no “B.” Unfortunately, her confession came two days after the McCain campaign ran that up the spin flagpole as proof that Obama supporters might do anything–mug you, carve on your daughter, even take your money and redistribute it to a welfare queen.
When this marathon election is over and the campaign signs are tossed in the scrap heap, there will be a lot of work to do. The nation is being ripped asunder by political operatives who regard this race as war, not as democracy in action. They are playing high stakes, and if some blood has to be shed along the way, if some dignity has to be sacrificed, if the truth is misshapen and unrecognizable, well, then so be it.
It is the scorched-earth politics that doesn’t leave the strongest candidate standing. It just leaves the one who is least crippled. The Republicans have demonized Obama (and by inference every Black male), in an attempt to show that he is not qualified to lead this country. They point to his character, his judgment, his associations and his experience as reasons why he is not fit for the job.
Obama has quickly morphed from “not like us” to “terrorist” to “socialist” to “Marxist” in the space of two weeks. John McCain warns of creeping socialism because of “spreading the wealth” but doesn’t explain why his vote to send $820 billion of taxpayer money to private financial companies (for them to use on spa retreats) isn’t spreading the wealth.
He doesn’t explain why tax breaks for corporations doesn’t shift taxpayer money from one segment of the economy to another.
Am I the only one who finds it disquieting that a United States senator is calling another United States senator a socialist?
Of course, Democrats have done the same to McCain, slyly referring to his age, his health problems and his ties to the most unpopular president in recent history. Without a doubt, this is bigboy politics, and the faint of heart should not enter, but this is different…this is serious.
Because no matter who wins on Nov. 4, somebody is going to have to take over leadership of a nation that is spiraling into a recession, where the stock market has lost a large percentage of its value in the last two months, with two wars (and an incursion into Syria), massive unemployment, failing schools, no real energy policy and loss of respect for this nation around the world.
What we may be creating is a nation that cannot be led. We have gone from splitting the nation up into red and blue states, to now splitting up the individual states into “good” and “bad” areas, with Republican vice-presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin trumpeting that small towns are inherently more patriotic, more “American” than big cities and other Republicans saying that northern Virginia is where the communists live, as opposed to southern Virginia where “real Americans” live.
That kind of incendiary rhetoric has fomented the kind of atmosphere where some misguided “Americans” feel that it is necessary to resort to violence to get their point across.
It is the kind of atmosphere that has intelligent, rational Black people wondering aloud about a violent “white backlash” should Obama win.
The next president will have to be able to heal this nation. But the scars that are being inflicted these last few months may not be easily healed.
We may have sunk so low into “them” vs. “us” politics that we won’t be able to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. Yes, these are dangerous times.
Lou Ransom is executive editor of the Chicago Defender. He can be reached at lransom@chicagodefender.com.
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