The interesting thing about the Kennedy assassination is that the President was killed by a lone communist, but almost everybody, up to including the slain president's friends and family, were invested in the idea of a right-wing conspiracy.
That psychodrama is beyond the purview of this piece, but the atmosphere that was ginned up before John Kennedy was murdered is very pertinent, regardless of who pulled the trigger.
The wave of revulsion following the slaying washed over the right-wing because the logical conclusion of their attacks on the president were now painfully laid bare. For although the men who made the flyer above did not murder the president, they publicly accused him of treason, and the penalty for treason is....precisely.
A similarly dangerous quickening of rhetoric occurred in the 1990's among right-wing militia, who harbored what were in my mind several legitimate critiques of abusive federal power in the wake of Waco and Ruby Ridge. Their rhetoric, however, came to overtake their legitimate grievances, and it only took one deranged acolyte, in the person of Timothy McVeigh, to permanently discredit that movement.
A similarly dangerous quickening of rhetoric occurred in the 1990's among right-wing militia, who harbored what were in my mind several legitimate critiques of abusive federal power in the wake of Waco and Ruby Ridge. Their rhetoric, however, came to overtake their legitimate grievances, and it only took one deranged acolyte, in the person of Timothy McVeigh, to permanently discredit that movement.
Oklahoma City did what the Kennedy killing(s) did; it illustrated in graphic and visceral violence the logical conclusion of certain rhetoric. If the president was guilty of treason, he must be executed. And if federal buildings are legitimate targets for attack, then the children attending daycare in those buildings are combatants.
Now I bare horrified witness to an agonizingly familiar but uniquely despicable radicalization of rhetoric. For Sarah Palin to accuse Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists" is such a grievous sin against decency that it took several days for me to fully absorb the weight of her words.
First, there was the crowd. The crowd that seemed primed for blood. The crowd that lustily booed the very mention of the New York Times. Were they booing reading? Were they booing New York? This rabid anti-intellectualism must be understood as part and parcel of this insidious rhetoric, which peaked when Mrs. Palin accused Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists."
"Terrorists" Plural. With no qualifying adjective. For Sarah Palin to speak this sentence in post-9/11 America is beyond comprehension for me. Does this woman genuinely not understand what she has said? That Barack Obama "palls around with terrorists" does not just mean that Obama is naive or liberal or elitist; it means that he is literally one of the enemy.
Post 9/11, it became this country's policy that no distinction would be made between "terrorists" and those was harbored them, aided them or, one would presume, palls around with them. Mrs. Palin placed Mr. Obama clearly with the "terrorists". And if that were true, well the only remedy to be sought be a concerned patriot would be....
McCain and Palin are putting an energy into motion that they cannot hope to contain.
Even when McCain feels compelled to make pro forma defenses of Mr. Obama, he is booed by the audience. Yes, when Mr. McCain pointed out that Mr. Obama is not "an Arab", he was booed.
When someone was heard to yell, "Kill him!", or "Bomb Obama!", Mr. McCain lost his only chance to attempt to gain control over this train. Any decent American patriot, including an earlier incarnation of John McCain, would have responded thusly: "How dare you, sir? How dare you direct such an ugly attack at a fellow American? I don't want your vote, and I don't want you at my rally." That didn't happen. And history will remember that.
This actually brings to mind a moment about 2 years ago when someone yelled from the audience at a Bill Clinton speech that the Bush administration had orchestrated 9/11. "How dare you...how DARE you?" said Mr. Clinton, eyes narrowing and face pinkening. That was the proper reaction.
But now, I realize, this thing has been let loose. There are thousands of citizens who go to McCain rallies not to cheer for Mr. McCain but to congregate in an orgy of self-reinforcing hatred for Mr. Obama. Only in such a crowd is one liberated to yell, "Kill him!" And from these crowds, killers are born.
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