This is really beginning to get old, not to mention scary. I know the "lib'ruls hate America!" meme is nothing new, but it sure feels like the Republican Party has been dragging it out into the spotlight lately.

Now they're talking about Congress and the media investigating "liberal" Americans and politicians, conservatives being the "real" Americans, as opposed to liberals, who supposedly hate "real Americans," apparently defined as people who believe in God and work for a living (not that anybody asked me if I hated Americans, "real" or not, mind you), and blasting anybody they disagree with as "Marxist" or "socialist". And that's on top of people yelling racist epithets and declaring Obama should be killed at McCain/Palin rallies. (Does the Secret Service not bust people for that sort of thing anymore?)

Kudos to Larry King, btw, who rightly recalled that the last bunch of people who took power by riling up the masses to root out the Marxists in their midst were fascists. And to the shmuck who declared that "fascism is about celebrating the country" -- yes, it is, and I don't suppose the GOP ever does that, does it? Of course not. Just make sure you're wearing your flag pin at all times, or you obviously hate America.

This is disgusting, pathetic, and divisive beyond belief. There hasn't been an election this dangerous since I've been alive, and that's scary. McCain, once considered a relative moderate who occasionally stood up to join hands with the people on the other side of the aisle, has transformed himself into a lightning rod for the most terrifying, most knee-jerk elements of the American populace. They've dredged up the people who truly do hate America -- like McCain pal G. Gordon Liddy, who thinks it's a good idea to shoot government agents -- and handed them a big, big stage to yell from.

Don't get me wrong, now: I think it's going to blow up in their faces. I think it's a sign of desperation, and I think the bulk of America still has the decency to recognize hate and irresponsibility and, to put it bluntly, evil, and I think they're going to vote against it. And I'm very, very happy about that.

What scares me, though, is what happens after an Obama win. Are the folks at these rallies, getting amped up on the anti-liberal, anti-Obama, anti-Democrat frenzy, just going to get back in their vans and head back to wherever they came from? Or are things going to get ugly and violent? The stuff these folks are saying now is what spurred on lynch mobs and witch hunts fifty, seventy, a hundred years ago, and I, for one, don't want to see us dragged back there.

Open memo to all the McCain/Palin fans, then: be a responsible citizen and exercise your right to vote, and then let the chips fall where they may. And no matter who wins in the end, let's all agree to work together to make the country a better place for everybody, regardless of belief, color, political affiliation, or home state. Isn't that what real Americans do?

Labels: Political Stuff, Random Rambling

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