The Reconstruction

From the videos of a number of McCain-Palin supporters at rallies and elsewhere, it appears that there is a non-trivial portion of the population that is actually afraid of Barack Obama as President. Note that I’m not referring to people who simply disagree with Obama’s policies, I actually mean people who fear Obama, people who believe that he would knowingly do harm to our nation. This is a dangerous phenomenon for the health of our democracy; for what set of beliefs must these people hold about their fellow Americans? About half of Americans prefer Obama over McCain, and it’s reasonable to believe that even the majority of McCain supporters don’t actually fear Obama. Those who do fear him, however, must believe that either half of Americans hate their country, or that the majority of Americans don’t know what’s going on, or some combination of the two.

Sadly, the conservative movement has propagated both of these beliefs for years. Consider whether two phrases sound familiar: “liberal elites who hate America”, and “the lies of the mainstream media”. These delusions, nurtured by the conservative establishment, are corrosive to the mutual respect necessary in a democracy and may lead to violent extremism and a nation irreparably divided.

This entry was posted Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 11:35 am and is filed under politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.