Ryan and I were floored because it came out of nowhere. I can't even remember what we said (hey ryan, do you?). Something to the effect of "okay, sir."
As he drove off we looked at each other bemused. We then realized he had finally seen the bad religion cross on the left arm of Ryans jacket. We've laughed about it ever since.
But it was a huge reminder of why we antagonized people with that kind of in your face imagery and disdain. The pathology and ignorance was sitting just below the surface and teenagers that we were, were just itching to bring it out of them.
Lets just say we did. But when you see these McCain/Palin smear rallies... you read stuff like this:
Heads Up!!!!!!!!from a fellow Chairman. Or see stuff like this...
My name is Melissa Wade and I'm the chair of the Pike County Democrats in Pike County Georgia and we hold our meetings at Ruth's Restaurant in Zebulon Georgia. Today upon exiting/paying bill (for food I bought to go) the owner preceded to spat at me about how awful it was that I registered gutter scum and those people do not deserve the right to vote. He went on and on and I paid my bill and told him it was a free country and we all have the right to vote and I couldn’t take 8 more years. I took my meal home (to go - it was really for my republican husband who was sick at the Doctor). I get home, then he gets home and goes to eat it and it has a mouse head in it, cooked and placed on top of the green beans. This is absolutely horrible! They must have assumed that the meal was for me.
We have filed a report with the police department, health dept., local paper, AJC, CNN, MSNBC.
And no, we will never have a meeting there again.
Sincerely,
Melissa Wade
Pike County Democrats
I can't help but think back to Fayette County circa '96 and why I cut my first Mohawk...
The angry 19 year old Jim wanted to say "told you so" after we elected Bush in 2000. No matter how hard we tried to argue the policy flaws, it was to no avail (we weren't organizing at the time). The angry early 20's Jim wanted to say "told you so," about the Iraq war and the impacts that the next generations will feel. After we worked so hard to point out the obvious lies, and disregard to smart policy, or accurate historical context--you get mad.
Ditto for when you argued against the 30 years of flat earth economics... and then sit in the midst of all that you fought against.
But in seeing this video of McCain supporters, I sadly feel a sense of "told you so." And the 28 year old who is trying so hard to toe the higher ground honestly does not know how to react.
I can tell you how I want to react. But I know this isn't rational, its emotive. Its not logical, its lacking in education or accurate context. I know these aren't bad people, they are scared, and desperate to protect their families and communities from the threatening world outside.
I'm sad today at what I'm seeing. And yet i'm not surprised.
Hopefully things calm down, but not likely till after the election. The good thing is, this doesn't work with independents, nor moderate Republicans. But still its a time I will always reflect on. It reminds me why I want to teach, write, and organize politically.
There is much work to do. Josh Marshall at TPM noted:
The essence of McCain's campaign now appears to amount to prepping McCain's base to believe they didn't really lose the election. The election was stolen from them by Barack, his army of gangsters and black street hustlers, and possibly Osama bin Laden too.These tactics are meant to re-enforce the base, to keep the anger up for the 2012 election. They will attempt to continue their rage, blocking everything they can through these same smears.
So you have last night the Chambliss, Martin, Buckely debate for U.S. Senate here in GA:
Thursday's debate took place in front of a highly partisan crowd in the GOP stronghold of Middle Georgia.
Chambliss supporters waved "Saxby" signs and offered up a sustained "boos" when Martin mentioned Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
"Bomb Obama," one woman hollered.
The best overview so far has been Talking Points Memo's post: Note To News Orgs: McCain And Palin Are Largely Responsible For Unhinged Tone At Their Rallies
No question, there are a number of factors at play. But surely the most important one is the role that McCain and Palin themselves are playing in creating the toxic hysteria that reigns at the rallies they are running.(as an aside... TPM truly is election central this year.
Let's consider a partial list of what the McCain camp has done recently:
* The McCain campaign is going well beyond raising questions about Obama's association with Ayers, repeatedly insinuating that Obama is currently in league with a current terrorist.
* Palin has repeatedly accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists."
* McCain himself has embarked on an effort to paint Obama as a vaguely sinister enemy within, with lines like this: "Who is the real Barack Obama?
* When a McCain supporter at a rally yesterday ranted that the country is being taken over by "socialists," and called Obama and Nancy Pelosi "hooligans," McCain didn't utter a peep of protest, and basically agreed.
* Cindy McCain basically accused Obama of endangering her son and other troops serving in Iraq with his vote against an Iraq funding bill, even though McCain also opposed a funding bill because it contained a withdrawal timetable.
* Palin attacks the media almost every day, even though her supporters are abusing reporters at her gatherings.
* Palin attacked Obama over Reverend Wright, and the campaign didn't disavow it -- even though McCain himself said in April that his campaign supposedly wanted no part of attacks on Wright.
But here's the most important point: To my knowledge neither McCain nor Palin has uttered a single syllable of protest as their crowds indulged their fear and loathing of Obama. It's hard to overstate how reckless and lacking in leadership this is -- and how dangerous this is, too.
Even an establishmentarian like David Gergen is now alarmed at the McCain team's own role in fomenting all the fury. "There is a free-floating sort of whipping-around anger that could really lead to some violence," Gergen said last night. "And I think we're not far from that...I think it's really imperative the candidates try to calm people down."
Or listen to Joe Klein: "We are on the edge of some real serious craziness here and it would be nice if McCain did the right thing and told his more bloodthirsty supporters to go home and take a cold shower."
But neither McCain nor Palin has taken a single step to do anything like that. Surely that's the big story here.
But we seem to be at quite a cultural impasse. Almost the inverse of the "silent majority" that it was said responded at the polls to the hippie counter culture they felt was destroying Western Civilization. Looks like the flat-earth "evolution is a theory..." [just like the theories of gravity, the sun coming up tomorrow, and when flipping the light switch the god which we call light bulb will begin to glow] crowd may be running loose. Its a cultural impasse. People truly think there is a liberal conspiracy. Socialism is on the lips of every conservative I speak with--every single one.
And I don't know how we get out of this kind of cultural impasse. I know we can. But it still, intellectually speaking, feels like the Republic is gone. If a Palin type got elected you could seriously see a transition (more so than the past 8 years) away from the principles are Founding Fathers passed down.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think the sky is falling.
When I saw this latest Naomi Wolf interview
I couldn't help but get caught up in her "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" urgency. "A coup has taken place," seems recognizable but i'm not sure you can have a coup if the conspirators don't seem to even comprehend such themselves. It may be an intellectual move to get people who tend to sit at home and do nothing, to get up, and well... you know... do something.
But maybe she is dead serious. I realized when I was in the car with Deana, on the way to picking up my cell phone, that I think if its true she thinks that the Conservatives really want to unleash authoritarianism; that she's wrong in a way.
I don't know if its open or conscious. I think its subconscious... that its so close to the surface that our government is threatened. That you have them running around during every crisis threatening that there will be Marshall law--as happened with the recent financial bailout bill...
I think the chop off the heads of the terrorist before they do it to us, throw them in prison forever with no lawyer, and spy on our citizens and keep them away from the lawyers too. "Americans be terrorists don't you know!" I think this is about subconscious fear, pathological need to protect themselves from the dangerous world.
I think back to the point Pacini once made to me about how literal interpretations of the bible appear historically during very violent times. The past century has been probably the most violent in history--okay don't they always say the 30 years war was really really bad? Which would explain the literal interpretations of the bible that run rampant in this country.
Anyways, I've spent my afternoon in thought, and political bouncing (blog to blog to blog--political bouncing? did I just invent a word?) and trying to spread the mousehead info to see if it hits the national blogs.
Right as I read the email... I wrote an immediate response and posted it up at TPM and DFA's blog for Democracy. I know its not wise to post in the heat of the moment, but in a way thats what bloggers do. So maybe one day I'll look back and regret how/what I said... but i'll close with my blog post on this past weeks events at McCain/Palin rallies...
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Sorry America, its not new to us.
Being Chairman of the Henry County Democratic party has taught me a lot about organizing. But it is not surprising to watch the tone and invective that has appeared in the past week. Fear tactics, intimidation, and personal threats that lie just below the surface of far too many Republicans is something Democrats here in the South find to be quite common. I saw it as a human rights organizer after 9/11, as an anti-war organizer in the run up to the war, and have watched it grow during this campaign.
After the conservative take over of the Republican party, the base of that party is fixated on beliefs that have no bases in reality. They hold these beliefs very strongly and it resonates within the culture here at a near pathological state.
Its important to note the pathology--these are good people, they work hard and try to live upstanding lives. But in the midst of fear, and lacking the security of knowing things are going to be okay, that pathology starts to surface. Traitor, Communist, unamerican, the devil, satanist, f---'in coward; I've been called all these things right to my face by men far larger than myself swinging their arms in an erratic style. The aggressive postures, the tone, lack of any valid reasoning's for their beliefs has caused many who support getting affordable health care, a sane foreign policy, or books in our schools, to stay silent. I have citizens who want to volunteer for the Democrats but are terrified that their neighbors will find out they are a democrat and will therefore not do anything that can connect them to the party or Obama.
Haven't you seen the emails-- Obama is a terrorist, Obama is a socialist... why haven't you heard Obama Osama, isn't that clear enough! Our way of life is at risk, it reads. I knew the "kill him," "terrorist" screams at recent events were on their way when my nephew sincerely asked me what I thought about people saying Obama is the anti-christ. He truly wanted to know what to think of this, you could see it in his eyes. And the reason he was curious was because kids can see when people are serious in their beliefs. Just below the surface of every smear email, or chuckle from a joke at a dinner party is someone who at some subconscious level is fearful and doesn't know how to protect their families from the outside world. I responded without blinking an eye and in a very serious tone said, "they have no integrity."
After I said it I regretted it because as I mentioned before, these are all good people. But when fear gets mixed in with lack of education, lies, and incendiary language that pathology starts coming to the surface. In times of crisis people follow the herd. But you start to see those who are a little unbalanced--or a lot--come to the surface. The scary thing is they become the leaders, because they set the example and the tone. When people who need to be on medication, or in serious long term therapy start leading the crowd it takes the rest of us to stand up and say not on our watch. The majority of Republicans are Americans who want the same things as everyone else. But the move away from "intellecualism" and the evils of academia in the base of the Republican party has undermined what was and can still be great about Republicans.
But leaders within the Republican party need to be held to task for not actively speaking out. I watch leaders in our local community; friends, family, elected officials sit in silence as some individual rants and raves. When the subject is on African Americans or just poverty in general its quite common to hear n---ger this, n---ger that. The conservatives around him sit and stare at the floor, cringe, or smile the awkward smile. The embarrassment often is more about someone saying what they too are feeling. With the economic crisis and the deterioration of our social safety net since the Reagan years; people are feeling fearful, angry, and humiliated.
The silence of the media thus far is like the silence of local officials, community leaders, and friends who do know better but exploit this fear for their own personal gain, power, and economic incentive. This isn't a game and when a mass mailed email just crossed my path from a fellow chair here in Lynn Westmorelands district I was appalled but not shocked...
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My name is Melissa Wade and I'm the chair of the Pike County Democrats in Pike County Georgia and we hold our meetings at Ruth's Restaurant in Zebulon Georgia. Today upon exiting/paying bill (for food I bought to go) the owner preceded to spat at me about how awful it was that I registered gutter scum and those people do not deserve the right to vote. He went on and on and I paid my bill and told him it was a free country and we all have the right to vote and I couldn't take 8 more years. I took my meal home (to go - it was really for my republican husband who was sick at the Doctor). I get home, then he gets home and goes to eat it and it has a mouse head in it, cooked and placed on top of the green beans. This is absolutely horrible! They must have assumed that the meal was for me.--------------------
We have filed a report with the police department, health dept., local paper, AJC, CNN, MSNBC.
And no, we will never have a meeting there again.
Sincerely,
Melissa Wade
Pike County Democrats
Remember this is the 3rd Congressional District. Lynn Westmoreland recently called Obama "uppity" and then refused to apologize. He smiled his classic ahh shucks smile and said he didn't know that's what that word meant. A local editorialist at a small paper received a barrage of hate speech and emails to her editor calling for her to be fired because of her obvious bias when she criticized his statement.
The "Liberal Media" make peoples eyes fume here. People don't trust the New York Times, Washington Post, or any major outlet. They truly believe the media is lying to them and trying to destroy their way of life here in their local community. A lack of education, basic understanding or issues, or information about what goes on up in Washington D.C. or the State House here in Atlanta is untutored and ill-informed. The right wing smear machine on right wing radio and TV feed these fears and frustrations. Lynn Westmoreland feeds these fears and frustrations when he calls the SCHIP bill socialism, "Hillary Care," and another example of the liberals being big spenders who want to take away your freedom. But what does any of that have to do with a program that would have gotten millions of low income children health care at the cost of about $23 a year per person?
Don't get me wrong Lynn Westmoreland is a nice man, I've met him was and he does seem to be a good person. If he was hungry, I'd give him half my sandwich, but he is not qualified to be a congressman, he is not educated on the issues, and lacks the judgement to be in Congress. In short he is not a leader, and in tough times we need leadership.
In the end its going to be the good people who remain silent that will be to blame if someone gets hurt from someone leaving one of these fear-monger "Country First" rallies. They'll be just a little chemically off, or have had recent traumatic events in their lives and they will explode. We are now watching the repercussion of 30 years of conservative economic policy, media smears, and individual intimidation.
I've learned a lot this election. I've seen the best and worst of our society. Watching so many young men and women ask me if the felony on their record will keep them from voting. The excitement of a young mother, who fills out the voter registration form for her son (who looks like a younger brother) because, "he can't write too well." I've watched men and women who have never participated start to organize their neighborhoods and fight for their own interests with a sense of dignity and pride. For that you get jeers that Obama is a celebrity, that he's the Messiah, that he's an uppity n--ger. So welcome to our world America, we're glad its finally on your radar.
In the end its going to be resolved by coming together as a community, state, and nation; and saying no to the fear. In the short term leaders in the Republican party should speak out against such invective, John McCain and Sarah Palin need to stop being the pep-squad, and the media needs to be vigilant in exposing every single event. In the long run its about better quality of life for working Americans--better education, better health care, better opportunity. These aren't bad people and I hate watching my left-er than thou friends gloat as the authoritarian impulse comes to the surface as if they are hoping for the lynch mobs to appear again just so they can be right.
Finally we need entertainers such as Boortz, Hannity, and O'Reilly; to admit just that--they are entertainers and get paid for hyperbole and invective. Politics isn't a game, it isn't a Marylin Manson concert. At least Marylin Manson is man enough to admit he's just an artist and entertainer. Maybe with time they will learn to grow up as well.
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What today will look like tomorrow is always a strange thing to do. But during events that you find historic events--in your own personal life or at large. So on days when nothing happens you aren't likely to reflect on the past or project much into the future. During challenging times our counsiciousness feel a tone of fear, confusion, and lack of stability--we tend to become overwhelmed.
Under the name of reason i'm trying to think of all this in a stoic manner. But sometimes the stomach churns and the mind wanders--even though I sit with a slight grin as I write this.
My wife is coming home soon, the dog is barking and prancing around, and life is good. At least there is one thing I can count on: the sky isn't falling and my life is full of love and fullfilment.
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