The Republican Hate Machine

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The bigotry of many Republicans and other far right supporters earlier was only common among scary emails, Fox News and right wing radio hosts. McCain’s actual campaign steered away from this in the beginning by throwing shock jock Bill Cunningham under the bus for using Obama’s middle name with out using McCain’s. But now that there isn’t much time left the McCain camp has decided to make bigotry against Muslims a central part of their campaign, disregarding the Muslim constituents who are voting for McCain.

The recent theme of McCain’s campaign rhetoric fuels the Muslim-hating-base, reaffirming that it is now okay to not just express anti-Muslim rhetoric by forwarding an email, but also by voicing it outside AND inside McCain campaign rallies. This hatred has turned off some voters yet some people don’t seem to understand why. While they yell Obama is a Muslim, McCain and his campaign (or other prominent Republican figures for that matter) won’t stand up in support of Muslims and point out that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim

Earlier in McCain’s campaign when he denounced the shock jock Bill Cunningham he sought out the endorsement of Pastor Rod Parsley a right wing open and loud Muslim hater who advocates violence. This got the attention of the Islamic world immediately. Not good when we are on Middle Eastern soil fighting wars in two countries and in a delicate situation with a third country.

Even after warnings from some supporters that McCain shouldn’t deal with Rod Parsley, McCain defended his association with him several times, claiming that he denounced the words, but not the man. After a couple of months went by a few media outlets decided to report on this for 48 hours. After this, McCain finally denounced Parsley. Some of McCain’s supporters claim that McCain only did this for political gain because he has a lot of supporters. This begs the question. Why can a man who wants the genocide of Islam bring support to the Republican base? And why would you want this kind of support?
Another republican Islam hater is celebrated and Syndicated right wing radio host Mike Savage who is broadcasted in over 300 radio stations nation wide spewed fiery venom about Muslims live on the air. Here is an excerpt of one rant from October 29, 2007:

I don’t wanna hear anymore about Islam. I don’t wanna hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it up your behind. I’m sick of you.

What kind of religion is this? What kind of world are you living in when you let them in here with that throwback document in their hand, which is a book of hate. Don’t tell me I need reeducation. They need deportation. I don’t need reeducation. Deportation, not reeducation.

Make no mistake about it, the Quran is not a document of freedom. The Quran is a document of slavery and chattel. It teaches you that you are a slave.

Rush Limbaugh, the syndicated right wing radio personality, has been using Muslim bigotry in the past by putting emphasis on Barack Obama’s middle name Hussein, but when that didn’t work Limbaugh actually fabricated a story during his September 22, 2008 broadcast, claiming that Obama wasn’t African American but an Arab.

These polls on how one-third of blue-collar white Democrats won’t vote for Obama because he’s black, and — but he’s not black. Do you know he has not one shred of African-American blood? He doesn’t have any African — that’s why when they asked whether he was authentic, whether he’s down for the struggle. He’s Arab. You know, he’s from Africa. He’s from Arab parts of Africa. He’s not — his father was — he’s not African-American. The last thing that he is is African-American. I guess that’s splitting hairs, I don’t — it’s just all these little things, everything seems upside-down today in this country.

After McCain’s campaign and the RNC adopted the Muslim hate as the core of their campaign, this hatred which was only being expressed in emails or right wing radio surfaced to the main stream of the rallies. The “American News Project” started doing stories and getting footage outside of the McCain rallies and most of the people going in expressed their Islamic bigotry by expressing that Obama was bad because he was a Muslim. Not one person stood up and said that hating Muslims is wrong. Until this rally on October 18 in Woodridge, Virginia where some Muslim McCain supporters took a stand against a group preaching Muslim Hate.
Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama and made a clear case why he is not voting with the Republican party. One of those reasons is the Republican endorsed bigotry towards Muslims. Here is an excerpt from Colin Powell on “Meet The Press,”

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

It is really sad that in our country a major party like the Republicans and their supporters would not want everyone of all groups to enjoy what they have to offer. Why would they embrace hate-filled rhetoric against Muslims, instead of making a stand against it? Republicans are showing how unpatriotic they are for our Muslim soldiers who are fighting for our country and, in the process, alienating their Muslim constituents. You would think that having military bases in the Middle East, fighting a war in Iraq, Afghanistan, conflicts in Pakistan, and tensions with Iran that the last thing they would want to display to everyone over there is that they hate them just for who they are. Not only does this disregard the safety of our troops, foreign relations and Muslim’s who support McCain, but it is also counter productive for the War on Terror by supporting the image that the United States is disingenuous in its intentions, and furthermore making the case for Al Queida in their attempt to recruit more volunteers.