View from Behind the Veil

Without a doubt, presidential elections are about using soaring rhetoric that excites the electorate to voting for a given candidate. Sen. Barack Obama has been a master of this. With his amazing oratorical skills the Senator from Illinois has amassed a large amount of followers that seem eager and ready to believe in the “change” Sen. Obama promises. In another meaningful but different way Sen. John McCain has a group of eager and loyal followers who have been moved by his rhetoric. Sadly though, his rhetoric is leading to an all-too-familiar yet unpleasant place for many Americans.

Not too long ago Sen. McCain changed his campaign direction from policy based critiques to character critiques. This has been and continues to be a slippery slope for the Senator from Arizona. Sen. Obama has appeared to lead a rather wholesome and decent life, so any character questions raised tend to come with a form of racist or prejudice overtone. The most serious form of character assassination Sen. McCain has attempted is the idea of guilt by association. By linking Sen. Obama to figures such as Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers, Sen. McCain has ginned up such deep passion and emotion that it has turned into hate.

This can be seen in the hanging effigy of Sen. Obama found on the campus of George Fox University (a Christian school no less). The atrocities do not stop there, after the McCain campaign dismissed one blatantly racist rant in a newspaper as essentially insignificant, the Virginia head of the GOP told volunteers to play up Obama’s connections to Osama bin Laden, claiming “both have friends who bombed the pentagon.” Although there is one rally where Sen. McCain recognized the outrageous nature of what was going on and put a stop to it (or one would like to think). When Sen. Obama was called an Arab by one woman, Sen. McCain responded that he was not an Arab but rather a decent family man. I suppose Sen. McCain thinks Arab men cannot be decent family men. Even if this is reading too deep, the tone of this election and the absurdity in the character questioning is getting out of hand.

What makes this uniquely worst than any other presidential campaign character questioning is the issue of race. Consider that on two occasions supporters at rallies have chanted “kill him” when Sen. Obama’s name is mentioned. Most would agree the idea of killing a candidate is very disturbing. This has a unique meaning to many Black Americans who have seen important figures in the community gunned down by assassins’ bullets. Many remember the feeling of hearing that Malcolm X was pronounced dead, or that Dr. King was gunned down in Memphis. Black Americans are not taking kindly to the kind of “hate” tactics and political games being used by the McCain campaign. Rep. John Lewis eloquently articulated this in his writings to Politico.com. Congressman Lewis says that he is “deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign.” Lewis says they are “growing the seeds of hatred and division.” The behavior of McCain supporters are example of that happening.

It is one thing to get your base riled up. It is a completely different thing to have folks wish ill on your political opponent. In Lewis’ statement a reference was made to Alabama segregationist governor George Wallace. Sen. McCain took offense to being compared to the former Alabama Governor. However in the eyes of many Blacks (and I’d like to think many Americans) the reference is appropriate. Neither McCain nor Wallace has explicitly called for direct violence against Black Americans. However, what is being done is creating an environment that becomes blatantly hostile to those who aren’t WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestants). I hope this wasn’t Sen. McCain’s intention. And I hope it is in the sincerest faith that Sen. McCain just doesn’t understand the severity of he and Sarah Palin’ rhetoric. Perhaps it’s because Sen. McCain isn’t a Black American who has had to ward off explicit and implicit racism in this nation since its inception, that he doesn’t understand the severity of his words. I hope Sen. McCain really didn’t know how hateful people can be if motivated by words. But I feel a need to be cautious with my hope. After all, it is Sen. McCain who warns us to be wary of hope.