I mentioned, in my last note on McCain's luck, how democratic voters are less prejudiced than republican voters. Before republicans lose their head over the remark, let me offer an elaboration, one to clarify AND to further develop why McCain's campaign is so despicable.
First, the clarification:
Movement conservatism, the radical fringe of the GOP that has dominated the party's policy for the last 30 years, is a movement grounded in racism (1).
While it is a strange idea for modern democrats like myself to consider, the south used to be a reliably democratic region. The logic was simple: FDR's New Deal offered showers of public aid to the impoverished regions of the South, areas that remained devastated from the evaporating manufacturing markets from the Civil War. While the area was still ripe with prejudice, it was short on ignorance, as southern voters were smart enough to vote for the hand that so generously fed them.
This continued until 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed. LBJ knew what he was doing. By supporting African-Americans in an unprecedented legislative effort, he was single-handedly offering the South to the GOP. And boy, did they exploit it.
Crazy as he was, Richard Nixon was a brilliant manager of campaigns. He knew what the people wanted to hear, but even more was his ability to run on raw emotion. Along with scare-tactics of communism, Nixon ran on racism, gathering strong southern support by matching their ugly ideology. It didn't matter that Nixon essentially governed as a liberal, raising taxes and pushing for universal healthcare. He ran on pure emotion, and that strategy left a strong impression on budding movement conservatives(2), who would use the campaigning excessively.
To be fair, I cannot credit the success of movement conservatism to racism alone. The movement was heavily financed by rich corporations that despised the high taxes of the New Deal, and the movement ran in equal hatred of such counter-culture themes as drugs, homosexuality, and promiscuous sex (I recommend finding a speech Ronald Reagan gave during his campaign for governorship of California, where he described "vile orgies" and a student dance that had descended into an orgy!).
The fruits of these early campaigns have flourished, as the GOP has held a thorough stranglehold over the South for a solid 30 years. Most recently, George W. Bush and Karl Rove composed a campaign of such cultural misogyny that Nixon would have wept a tear in pride. In 2000, they famously leaked a rumor that John McCain had an illegitimate black child--and during the South Carolina Primary, of all times (and I did mention the baby was black, right?). And during his 2004 re-election, Bush ran on constitutionally banning gay marriage.
These are two of the more egregious examples, but you get the point. Republicans have played on prejudice and raw emotion to win elections.
Now, the elaboration on why McCain is such a scumbag:
John McCain has, essentially, nothing to run on as president. His record as a maverick is laughable upon further inspection. His recent activities, from confusing Sunni and Shia tribes to making so many gaffes on the campaign trail that a campaign manager announced he did not speak for his own campaign, have raised more than eyebrows. And his latest flip flops, on key issues like taxes and immigration, make him progressive politics' worst nightmare.
It is not surprising, then, that McCain would demolish his alleged integrity and run on fear; after all, he is running against a black man with a frightening name. These actions alone are scumbag-worthy, as anybody with a stable internet connection can deduce that Barack Obama is not raising taxes on the middle class, is not a freedom fighter from the middle east, and is not good buddies with Bill Ayers. But again, McCain is a movement conservative candidate, so this was expected.
What I never anticipated, though, was McCain of the swastika. Watching the McCain rallies last week was like being transported to a Nuremberg rally. McCain practically bated the audience, asking rhetorical questions like "Who is Barack Obama?" just begging the crowd to should out words like "A Terrorist!" Sarah Palin was just the same, questioning the crowd at her rally on why a presidential candidate would buddy-up with former terrorists? prompting a crowd member to bellow "KILL HIM!"
This is unacceptable. In an unstable time, where a member of one of the most discriminated minorities in human history is running to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling, your campaign is whipping the uneducated, prejudice base you call "supporters" into a drunken, hate-filled frenzy.
Maybe they'll get lucky and someone will finally shoot Obama.
Despicable. Manipulative. Low. This is the dirtiest political campaign I have ever seen, and I can only hope that Obama wins in a route on November 4 and McCain is forever known as the solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, short man whose grisly politics cost him the election.
1. Indeed: William Buckley, the creator of the movement, defended the Southern States rights to prohibit African-Americans, or, lesser humans, from voting.
2. And Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, the fattest piece of journalistic excrement ever spat upon this earth. And yeah, he did graduate from Ohio University...
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