Dark clouds on the horizon of hope

This past week brought out the true nature of a certain segment of McCain followers and of Sarah Palin herself. At a Palin event, "Sarahcudas" turned nasty towards the media, and one shouted a racial insult at a sound guy. Later, Palin tried to connect Obama to Ayers and someone shouted "Kill Him!" At McCain's event, the senator asked "Who is Barack Obama?" and one of his followers shouted "A terrorist!" with a force of hatred that made McCain recoil.

The Michelle Malkins of the world call it unjustifiable outrage or hysteria and use the old "they do it, too!" garbage. Even seemingly sane people on the right dismiss it all as acts of a few fringe elements. If one person does it, yeah, it's fringe. Two people, ditto. But it isn't just one or two people. Every rally has an atmosphere of hatred and anger. They blame the economic crisis on minorities. They blame Washington. They blame "liberals." The only people they don't blame are themselves. Even as they struggle to decide which credit card bills they should pay this month, even as they worry about being evicted from their homes, they refuse to look in the mirror and take any responsibility for the economic crisis we are in. They'd rather blame a guy with a funny name who doesn't look like them.

This country has a history of violence. This country has a history of racism. Duh. A lot of people on the right believe that because Jim Crow is off the books, there is no more racism in the country aside from the wackos in the KKK or neo-nazi groups. Simply not true.

A few noteworthy items:

A guy with an Obama sticker had his car vandalized. The sheriff who wrote up the crime suggested that if he insisted on having an Obama sticker on his car then he should deal with the consequences.

Children were teargassed at a local mosque here in SW Ohio.

An Obama sign was burned in a black family's front yard.

A man brings a monkey doll with an Obama bumper sticker to a Palin rally.

Then there was this intolerant invocation at a McPalin rally in Iowa.

I have heard the N word with my own ears more times in the past two weeks than I may have heard in my lifetime.

Sure, the left has its extremists, too. The difference is that the Democratic party doesn't play to them. The Republicans actively seek out the votes and participation of skinhead wannabes and the spiritual warriors, those who want to bring on another crusade. The McCain campaign actively sought to appeal to the inner racists in its base, and that's where the difference lies. That's from where the outrage stems.

When anyone talks of the outrage, the Malkins of the world dismiss it as the evil liberal media. It doesn't matter that hundreds of columnists have spoken out against the hatred on display at the rallies - they are just a part of the Obamedia, as Malkin thinks she is cleverly terming it. This is the same media on which the Palin supporters turned. Frankly, I think the media should have refused to cover her after that outlandish display of fear and ignorance.

These conspiracy theorists think the whole world is out to get them - the media, Hollywood, the "elitists" who have university degrees - it's all one big conspiracy to take their guns and religion away. Khaled Hosseini, he of Kite Runner fame, spoke out against it today. But it won't matter to the racist rednecks - Hosseini is a Muslim. He's going to...you know, I don't understand what these people think the liberals are going to do to them. What a bunch of ignorant fools. It's as if they can't tell the difference between reality and a Tom Clancy movie.

The reason Obama is winning and will win is because he offers a message of hope. The others offer a culture of fear. Normal people have grown tired of that fear.

UPDATE: I'm going to use this post to document all of the stories of hatred I read for the next couple of weeks. Here's one - a man calls an Obama supporter pushing his two year old son in a shopping cart a "commie faggot." Note the bit about the police officers saying they've had an increase in similar incidents.

A guy in Hagerstown thinks Obama's a Muslim who will nuke Hagerstown.

Swastika painted on an Obama sign.

Road rage because of a bumper sticker