Crossposted at The Liberal Journal
On the same day that a new poll showed McCain’s negative campaign is damaging his chances, he used the final debate to go even more negative. And McCain and Palin are both going deeper into black-helicopter territory, with talk of “terrorists” and a scary organization they say is going to steal the election.
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The question is: Why? Why would a faltering campaign double-up on a losing strategy? Sure, there’s always the possibility that McCain can’t help himself, that he’s so full of anger and bitterness that he can’t control himself. Or there’s the possibility is that the Palinites have taken over the campaign, forcing McCain to do their bidding. (“Lassie, go tell Mom and Dad! The bad people have taken Grandpa!”)
But there’s a simpler explanation for all the wacky conspiracy theories and incitements to right-wing rage: This could be a long term “destabilization” strategy. They expect to lose. So they’d rather lose by an even larger margin, but in a way that encourages their base to question the legitimacy of Obama’s administration. McCain’s behavior actually makes sense in that light – if their goal isn’t to win, but to lay the groundwork for noncooperation (if not active resistance) to the Federal government.
That’s not an opposition-party strategy. It’s political Posse Comitatus.
Before you decide they’d never be that extreme, remember: That’s pretty much what they did during the Clinton years — with the murder theories, false conspiracy stories, and deeds like Newt Gingrich shutting down the government. It was a watered-down version of the destabilization campaigns the U.S. has used against unfriendly foreign governments for decades.
I’m not sure that that is what’s defining McCain’s strategy, however, it is valid to realize that Obama’s presidency will parallel and far exceed Clinton’s in the sense of a rabid hatred from the Right.
We are already seeing the laughable, robotic attachment of labels and buzzwords to demonize Democrats. Socialists. Marxists. Why? Because saying you want the highest marginal tax rate to be set at 39.6% rather than 35% simply isn’t that scary. (Just like cutting it in the first place didn’t revolutionize our economy.) Instead, they must demagogue the issue. They must tap into some latent Cold War, Duck and Cover, Mutually Assured Destruction, Red Commie Bastard, World Turned Upside Down fear.
On Letterman Thursday night, John McCain said the Ayers issue was just about Obama being forthcoming about the relationship. “That’s all.” No, it’s clearly about having an excuse to say the word ‘terrorist’ and ’60s radical’ and ‘leftist’ repeatedly until people start hyperventilating and choking on their Big Macs.
But what the socialist label and the terrorist label all indirectly point towards is the notion of anti-Americanism. Those other labels are almost starting to lose their meaning. First, they’re not helping McCain so far. Second, one voter in a focus group said that she knew about the terrorist group Obama “was in” (obviously the propaganda has worked so well people believe Obama was actually a member of the Weather Underground at the tender young age of 8) but she still cared more about healthcare.
However, the anti-American label gets to the crux of the matter. Rep. Michele Bachmann, the most unhinged McCain surrogate alive, who is quite possibly a robot herself, unleashed the anti-American label on Hardball. She repeats the words leftist, extreme liberal, and anti-American over and over again. Chris Matthews egged her on a bit, getting her to say that the press should look into members of Congress who might be anti-American.
(Also did you notice the hatred of college campuses? i.e. anti-intellectualism)
Such a sick display of modern day McCarthyism is what those Buckleys and Wills and Brooks’s are running away from. And Peggy Noonan who wrote today discussing Sarah Palin:
In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It’s no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.
As mentioned in the Hardball segment, Sarah Palin today talked about the “pro-American areas” of the country. So parts of America are not pro-themselves? That is so illogical, it is vulgar.
The person who got way more attention than he deserved, Mr. Joe the Plumber, said in one of his interviews that he shouldn’t have to apologize for being American. I’m about 99.99% certain no liberal has ever come up to Joe and said, “Joe, you are American, so you must apologize.” This is a straw man argument. What it is based on is criticism of the proper way the U.S. government should act abroad. That is democracy. Yet, the ‘apologizing’ frame makes those like Joe feel like they are acting in self-defense, which therefore justifies however they choose to respond. Also, the logical conclusion of the frame is that to criticize any of our activities abroad is to help the enemy, as if we live in a giant bunker rather than a democratic republic.
Most reading this are probably thinking, ‘yeah, I know the flaws in logic, already.’ But the potential repercussions of the failure of many of our fellow citizens to make these connections are truly frightening. We’re getting closer to the bunker.
The reason I think anti-American is so dangerous is, in addition to being eerily reminiscent of McCarthyism, is that you can at least disagree and co-exist with a socialist. But someone who is un-American is an invader, an enemy, an ultimate, faceless Other. Once you are ‘other’-ized you can become the victim of violence from those in the “good American” group or the “Real American” group.
That’s the same mentality that resulted in that church shooting in Tennessee over the summer:
An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday.
A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson’s small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, “he hated the liberal movement” and was upset with “liberals in general as well as gays.”
Or just today when a McCain/Palin supporter kicked a reporter.
Or just today when a McCain/Palin supporter hung an effigy of Obama from a tree and said the following:
Surprise, shock and some fear in a local neighborhood, after an anti-Obama display is hung from a tree…And the person who put it there says the message isn’t political, it’s racist. Shawn Ley spoke with the man who isn’t shy about his views.
There it is, right above the “McCain-Palin” sign: a make-shift ghost, hanging from a noose. A Barack Obama sign attached upside down. Obama’s middle name: “Hussein” spray painted and misspelled above.
Mike Lunsford hung the ghost in his yard. He spoke to us off-camera, saying his views could hurt his employers business … but he says make no mistake: He doesn’t want an African American running the country.
Lunsford says he believes Barack Obama is not a “full blooded American.” And he says the United States is a white, Christian nation – and only with white Christians should be in power.
I know bad things happen on all sides. But the ratio is far more on one side, and it’s because of the hatred that is being fomented. I have only heard one side say that those not like them or those that disagree with them are anti-American.
Remember the noose image that was posted then taken down by a right wing blog? Remember what they wrote:
“…we’re dealing with Communist Liberals here and not normal people. So, to those who want to whine, I’m just fighting fire with fire here and giving these Anti-American, God Hating, Baby Killing, Fascist bastards a dose of their own medicine.”
“We’re at war folks, and I intend to fight this war until my dying breath. We’re at war against terrorists that want to destroy this country and everything it stands for and we are war against godless liberals who hate the very values and freedoms that this Nation was founded upon.”
There’s that word again: anti-American. Combined with the part about us not being “normal people,” they’re dehumanizing us.
Now, the rank and file hatefest has bubbled up to Michele Bachmann. When members of Congress start saying this they are legitimizing witchhunting. She won’t be reprimanded for what she said. Yet what she said lays the groundwork, the foundation, for things to get uglier, for the shrieks of Obama’s illegitimacy to grow louder, which can then lead to violence. I wouldn’t be seduced by a big election night for the Democrats, either. While that may demoralize the Republican party as a whole, it will make elements of it even angrier and more determined. So while we will have to defend rationality, progressive values, and Obama from unfair attack and hate from the Right, we also have to be vigilant and proactive when it comes to this growing monster.
I leave you with Edward Murrow’s words as portrayed in the movie Good Night, and Good Luck: