bwahahahahaha. what a load On Oct 10, 8:24 am, "\"Lone Wolf\"" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > McCain-Palin campaign’s attacks on Obama: a whiff of fascism > By Bill Van Auken, Socialist Equality Party candidate for vice > president > 10 October 2008 > Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author > > Faced with dwindling poll numbers and an increasingly hostile > political environment created by the economy’s dizzying downward > spiral, the Republican campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin has > responded with a virulently right-wing appeal directed to the most > politically backward layers in America. > > Campaign rallies for the Republican presidential and vice-presidential > candidates have taken on an increasingly angry and even violent tone. > > Virulent denunciations of Democratic presidential candidate Barack > Obama delivered by Palin at campaign rallies in Florida this week were > met with shouts from the crowd of “treason” and, in one case, “kill > him.” > > At an event in New Mexico, McCain delivered a stock rhetorical line > aimed at invoking fears of the Democratic candidate: “Who is Barack > Obama?” Without missing a beat, a shout came back from the audience: > “terrorist.” > > The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reported from a campaign rally in > Clearwater, Florida in which the crowd, inspired by Palin’s attacks on > the media, turned on reporters shouting abuse and waving sticks. > “Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew,” Milbank recounted. “One > supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African-American sound > man ... and told him, ‘Sit down boy.’” > > Last February, McCain felt compelled to disassociate himself from a > right-wing talk radio announcer who, in introducing the Republican > candidate, referred to his Democratic rival as “Barack Hussein Obama,” > with the accent on the middle name. Now the reference has become > routine at Republican rallies, feeding into a general theme of the > campaign that the Democratic senator from Illinois not only cannot be > trusted, but is a potential terrorist, and making a barely concealed > appeal to racism. > > “Think how you’ll feel on November 5 if you wake up in the morning and > see the news that Barack Obama—that Barack Hussein Obama—is the > president-elect of the United States,” Lehigh County Republican Party > chairman Bill Platt declared in a warm-up speech for Sarah Palin in > Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The remark was met with loud boos. > > The atmosphere in these Republican events resembles more and more that > of a lynch mob. And the continuous attempts to paint Obama as a > “traitor” and “terrorist” have the potential of inciting real > violence, including attempts on the Democratic candidate’s life. > > At the center of this extreme right-wing turn in the Republican > campaign strategy is a McCarthyite smear campaign linking Obama to > William Ayers, a former member of the 1960s-era Weather Underground > group, who today holds the title of “distinguished professor” of > education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a liberal > reformist. > > The McCain campaign unveiled a 90-second Internet campaign ad that > rehashes the fact that Ayers hosted an event in his home when Obama > was running for state senator in 1995 and that the two subsequently > served together on the board of a non-profit organization. > > Cutting back and forth between photos of Obama and Ayers, it concludes > with the narrator’s ominous sounding voice-over: “Obama’s friendship > with terrorist Ayers isn’t the issue. The issue is Barack Obama’s > judgment and candor. When Obama just says, ‘This is a guy who lives in > the neighborhood,’ Americans says, ‘Where’s the truth, Barack?’ Barack > Obama, too risky for America.” > > McCain echoed the same witch-hunting theme virtually verbatim at a > campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Thursday: “Look, we don’t > care about an old washed-up terrorist and his wife, who still, at > least on Sept. 11, 2001, said he still wanted to bomb more. That’s not > the point here. The point is Senator Obama said he was just a guy in > the neighborhood. We know that’s just not true. We need to know the > full extent of the relationship because of whether Senator Obama is > telling the truth to the American people or not. That’s the question.” > > This thoroughly reactionary campaign, based on half-truths and > innuendo, has been dutifully echoed by the mass media, with the New > York Times publishing a front-page article on the Obama-Ayers > connection last week, MSNBC running an investigative report on the > subject and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News making it the overriding > political story each and every day. > > Ayers—referred to by the McCain campaign as “terrorist Ayers,” as if > it were some military title—is, it deserves pointing out, a private > citizen with no connection to Obama’s presidential campaign. He was > never convicted of any crime nor charged with anyone’s death. > > Yet, the clear aim of the Republican campaign is to link him—and by > association, Obama—to the terrorist attacks of September 11, thereby > painting the Democratic candidate as a traitor and unfit for office. > > The Weather Underground, the group in which Ayers was a leading > figure, emerged out of the mass opposition to the Vietnam War that saw > millions of Americans take to the streets to demand an end to US > military slaughter. > > The group expressed the frustration and disorientation of a section of > the protesters who, despairing of the possibility of winning the > American working class to the struggle against war and capitalism and > influenced by the retrograde theories of Maoism, turned to what they > saw as a more radical form of protest, involving isolated bombings. > > During a period in which the US war machine was responsible for > killing over 3 million Vietnamese, the Weather Underground’s > activities cost a total of three lives, all of them members of the > group itself, who were killed in an accidental explosion. > > Part of the McCain campaign’s focus on this issue is aimed at > demonizing the mass opposition that helped to force an end to the > Vietnam War and rehabilitating the war itself. Only in this context > can one understand the incongruous accusation by McCain—the former > fighter pilot shot down while bombing heavily populated areas of Hanoi— > that Obama is guilty of associating with someone involved in the > “bombing of innocent civilians.” > > The inability of the Obama campaign to mount a direct and forceful > response to this diatribe is bound up with its essential acceptance of > this version of the Vietnam War, expressed in the Democratic > candidate’s continuous “honoring” of McCain’s military service. The > Democrats, no less than the Republicans, are determined to put behind > them the so-called “Vietnam syndrome,” a euphemism for the enduring > hostility of the American people to sacrificing the lives of its youth > in wars of aggression. > > While essentially cowing in the face of the Republican smear campaign > over Ayers, the Democrats have done nothing to expose the real dangers > represented by the political forces to which their Republican rivals > are now making such a direct appeal. > > The nature of these political layers emerges clearly in the > associations of their vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, who > was picked for her ability to “energize the base,” i.e., whip up the > Republican right. > > Her husband was a member, and she at least a political sympathizer, of > the Alaska Independence Party (AIP), an outfit that called for the > secession of Alaska from the union and formed the Alaskan chapter of > the Constitution Party, an extreme right-wing organization advocating > Christian theocratic rule in America. Its founder, Joe Vogler, was > killed in 1993 in what was described by the media as a “plastic- > explosives sale gone bad.” > > The politics of the AIP paralleled that of the right-wing militia > movement that gave rise to such elements as Timothy McVeigh and Terry > Nichols, the authors of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that claimed > the lives of 168 people. > > Moreover, Palin’s central appeal is based on her hard-line anti- > abortion position, embraced by the Christian right and an anti- > abortion movement that has given rise to the largest share of > terrorist attacks carried out on American soil over the past two > decades, including murders of health care practitioners, bombings, > arsons, assaults and threats of violence. > > Yet neither the Democratic Party nor the media has shown an > inclination to cast any light on these relations, much less subject > them to the kind of front-page treatment given to the four-decades-old > exploits of William Ayers and his tenuous connections to Obama. > > The role of the Christian right and of semi-fascistic elements within > the Republican Party remains the great unmentionable in American > politics. They are accorded political protection and legitimacy > precisely for the role they play in diverting the anger and > frustration of sections of the population into reactionary channels > that serve to prop up the ruling establishment. > > The right-wing campaign presently being waged by the Republican Party > has ominous implications. While it is highly questionable whether it > will shift votes from Obama to McCain, it is serving to mobilize the > most reactionary political forces and whip them to a fever pitch. > > These forces will not go away after the November election. Given an > Obama victory at the polls, they will be utilized to place continuous > pressure on the incoming administration, driving it ever further > towards the right. > > Moreover, under conditions in which the immense crisis of American > capitalism will inevitably produce explosive mass social struggles, > the political sentiments to which the Republicans are appealing today > will tomorrow form the ideological basis for fascistic movements aimed > against the working class. > > The Democrats’ inability and unwillingness to answer the attacks > coming from the McCain-Palin campaign demonstrates the impossibility > of countering this threat from the right by voting for Obama. It > requires, above all, the political mobilization of the working class > through the building of an independent party fighting for its own > interests on the basis of a socialist program. This is the alternative > fought for solely by the Socialist Equality Party. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
