Neo-McCarthyism and Republican Scare Tactics

To listen to the latest rhetoric and robo-calls from the Republican National Committee and the John McCain campaign you would think that America is under siege by a Socialist horde of Democrats just waiting to institute Stalinism in America. From claims of Obama “palling around with terrorists” to calling Obama’s tax plan to let working Americans keep more of their own money instead of giving all the breaks to the rich Socialist policy, the Republicans are pulling out all of the scare tactics they can to bail out their losing presidential campaign. Michele Bachmann, a Republican running for Congress from Minnesota has even gone so far as to call for investigations into members of Congress to see who is “anti-American”. If the Republicans sink much lower in the polls we might even get an ad with a nuclear blast going off and a warning that Obama will bring the end times upon us. Not since the 1964 Lyndon Johnson campaign with its “Daisy Girl” ad have we seen such alarmist tactics being used in presidential politics. To compare these attacks with the “Swift Boat” ads in 2004 would be like comparing a firecracker to a hand grenade.

This tactic of digging into the fears of Americans is not only despicable it shows just how weak the Republicans are on policy issues. They can’t say what they are going to do better than the last eight years because they are responsible for the last eight years so they resort to questioning the patriotism of people like Barack Obama who on Sunday received the endorsement of Colin Powell, a Republican former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When endorsing Obama, Powell noted the negative tone of the McCain campaign and poor choice of Vice Presidential candidate as some of the things that helped him to make his decision to endorse Obama.

When you look at who supports which candidate for President it becomes clear that one candidate truly does represent a change in American politics while the other represents the worst of what politics can become. While the Republicans try to tear down Obama for the actions of people that he has known and associated with, they have cried fowl when Obama supporters pointed out that John McCain is the only major party nominee for the presidency who was reprimanded by Congress after an ethics investigation into his actions to use his power to aid a supporter (Charles Keating) who would later go to prison on related charges.

Barack Obama has been endorsed by both Al Gore and Colin Powell. Think about that for a minute. These are two men who you would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of things they can agree on but they agree on Barack Obama being the best choice to lead our nation. People like Susan Eisenhower, life-long Republicans, have endorsed Obama because they feel he will take our country in a better direction than John McCain.

Among John McCain’s list of supporters are Karl Rove, Dan Quayle, George W. Bush and George Allen (of “Macaca” fame). These are stellar examples of the best American political hatchet men in recent history. These are not the men who build coalitions but the men who tear down opposition and hold win-at-all-cost mentalities no matter who might be hurt in the process. While they smile for the crowd they are plotting the next dirty trick to pull on their opponents. Is this really what we want more of in our government?

So when you hear the messages telling you to be afraid of Barack Obama because he once sat in the same room with a person that did despicable things when Obama was eight years old, think about who supports Obama and ask yourself if you think the people that support him are the kind of people that would willingly put someone in the White House who is anti-American. Would Colin Powell support a terrorist for President? Come on, let’s get real here. McCain is pulling every dirty trick there is to pull because he can’t win on the issues. His plan for change is not change and he knows it so he resorts to name calling and scare tactics. Are you going to be fooled by these hatchet-job and con-artist tactics? Are Americans really that stupid?

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