The issue is not merely the fundraising poster that was an open call to fear and hate using language and pictures that no major American political party has ever used. The issue is that the modern Republican Party does not have opponents, it has enemies. The modern Republican Party does not seek to win a debate, it seeks to destroy its opponents.
This poster is sick, demented and un-American in its use of fear and hate to slander President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif). It is un-American to call the nation to fear. It is un-American to call the nation to hate. It is un-American to use slander and lies to divide Americans against each other.
How dare these people wave the American flag while they dishonor our basic values with their despicable appeals to the darkest impulses of the most radical extremes.
We have reached the point where rallies include posters of the president with references to Hitler so offensive that they were roundly condemned by religious leaders, while certain Republican leaders in Congress, instead of condemning them, giving rousing speeches to cheering audiences in front of radical rightists waving signs of hate.
Republicans should reread the farewell speech of Richard Nixon, who admitted he was so full of hate for opponents that he destroyed himself.
Republicans should consider why Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln would be thrown out of the modern Republican Party and would be Democrats if they were alive today.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele should fire everyone associated with this poster and issue a personal apology to President Obama, Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi and members of both parties who are offended by this slanderous partisanship.
