Some call such men freedom fighters, “But what about McCain's associations with former Sixties radicals?” asks Marc Cooper in an Oct. 5 article at Huffington Post. “Indeed, until just a few years ago, McCain openly boasted not only about his passing friendship but also his deep collaboration with one of the most prominent of Vietnam-era student radicals, David Ifshin… who denounced America on Radio Hanoi (my italics) as McCain sat locked up as a POW.”
This story of friendship trumping culture wars could be regarded as a story of redemption, but if McCain and Palin have proven anything, it’s that any story can be twisted into a damning indictment to incite spectators to get angry, even to the point of championing murder.
So far, only one candidate has gone that far. As Conover wrote, “It’s bad enough that right-wing talk show hosts call for people’s deaths--and we saw how that played out when Jim D. Adkisson shot up the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, killing two and wounding five, because he hates liberals… but for a vice presidential candidate to hurl verbal bombs that could lead to a man’s death is not just over the top… it’s criminal.”
If McCain has any integrity left, he should tell Palin to tone down the rhetoric or go back to Alaska. I don’t see that happening. Rather, I see things getting more incendiary as the election draws near.
As I wrote last winter, I truly hope such fear is a function of my age and false wisdom grounded in the often dark times that shaped me. I couldn't bring myself then to speak the horror that's counterpoint to a song Obama inspires in the heart of many Americans, and I suspect others have been slow to invoke it as well.
But now it's time to say it aloud because, should Obama come to harm, America could well explode into such violence that it destroys what’s left of our republic and our Constitution. Our leaders had best do everything possible to see that doesn’t happen lest we reap the whirlwind.
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