Carter has already done so, and, in his own way, so has Henry Gasparian. An Armenian survivor of Nazi atrocities, Gasparian made headlines this month after he was arrested for attempting to stop the distribution of flyers depicting a Hitler-like visage of President Obama. As a youth, Gasparian saw two of his uncles killed, witnessed his father wounded and saw his brother slowly starve to death resulting from the German invasion of Russia. Obviously, the sight of the Obama/Hitler posters was enough to drive Gasparian to take a principled stand against hate.
Again, who among the most influential of Republican officials has the courage, integrity or leadership capacity needed to take a similar stand? At this point clearly there are few who are willing to accept this challenge. Right now, most seem content to continue to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear of denial to the light and sound leading to the courage it takes to ensure that a potential tragedy is stopped in its tracks. Republicans appear all to enthusiastic about pandering to those on the fringe who see a light at the end of a tunnel and who, without checking, insist that this light represents that tunnel's end and not the ominous glow of a freight train barreling toward them full speed ahead. If indeed this is the case, who is truly responsible for the train wreck that ensues?
In this case, it would be those Republicans who saw it necessary, for their own political survival, to reach deeply into darkened tunnels of medieval thought seeking inspiration from the likes of a Sarah Palin, or have joined in affixing their party's future to the rabble-rousing, hateful and divisive rhetoric provided by the Limbaughs, Becks and Hannitys.
But the worst part of all this is that in the aftermath of the playing out of any worst-case scenario, somehow these "leaders" would figure a way to blame the victim, even if the victim turned out to be Barack Obama.
They'd just be very careful to avoid using the "N-word" in the process.
