chicagodads

Children tend to see in black and white. They tend to think that a person is either for them or against them, which is why parents are so confused - children hate us when we don’t go their way.

The election is coming down to that. No, forget it: it’s there and over the ramp. McCain’s people are running negative ads about Obama nearly 100% of the time . About 1/3 of Obama’s ads are negative. McCain attacks Obama on his associations (and makes dangerous claims about a black man who could be president as “dangerous”. Oh, and that he hates his country and could also be a terrorist.). Obama attacks McCain on his age (”out of touch”, “doesn’t know how to use a computer”, “can’t remember”).

It’s not that I’m worried that these negative attacks will swing the votes one way or the other. For now, at least, the people who aren’t already decided (say 9% of likely voters) are actually looking at real, hard core issues. Can this man fix what’s wrong? What can he (or she) do to help my family?

Here’s the reason I’m worried, though: i believe in the power of words.

The rhetoric itself is getting dangerous : the secret service is investigating about a man who shouted “kill him” at a Governor Palin-moderated hate-fest and when McCain asked who the real Obama is, someone loudly answered “terrorist”. Neither  vigilante was stopped, neither candidate called for sobriety or level-headedness (EDIT: That’s changed since this Friday, but only after one week of such rhetoric and after even top GOP officials were decrying the mob mentality). They let the words fly unchecked. How is that presidential? How is that leadership? How is that UHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

….

Oh. And just so you know, at one of these events, an African-American working sound at the Palin gathering was yelled at (with a racial epithet) and told to, “sit down, boy .”

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