It’s tough to extinguish a fire that you’ve stoked so high. I think John McCain has been reminded of one of his responses during Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Civil forum on Presidency, when he listed Rep. John Lewis as one of three people that he would listen to the most. I just wish that all of McCain’s many role reversals were this commendable.   

L.Arnell

Update: Though I do recognize McCain’s attempts at reining in the ill sentiment of his supporters as worthy of applause I do so with restraint. When you refute an accusation of being an Arab with “No Ma’am, he’s a decent family man, citizen..” it gives the implication that being an Arab is somehow an antonym of this. This is something that I’ve noticed both candidates need to work on.

L.Arnell

Update: Despite his professed admiration, John McCain is hearing Rep. Lewis but unfortunately he’s not listening. Why is it always that the first reaction to a statement of concern and criticism is contrived outrage. If McCain were actually listening he would not hear Lewis calling him and Palin segregationalists or in anyway comparing their ideals with George Wallace’s, but he would hear the genuine concerns of a man whose personal experiences uniquely enable him to recognize the ugly symptoms of escalating hatred and division. He would give pause to his theatrical victimhood to recognize that the threat of assassination has loomed over Obama’s head since day one. Lewis’ comments were perhaps not that well tailored for the hypersensitive but it worries me that its legitimacy is so easily undercut and distorted.

L.Arnell

For the sake of context….

Mom and Dad, I too have noticed that we have crossed that threshold where we’re no longer just rolling our eyes at John McCain because he is misrepresenting Obama’s tax plan, or blaming him for high gas prices. The current tenor of rhetoric from McCain and Palin represents an appeal to our basest compulsions of fear and division.      

Echoing your disgust, and sounding the same alarms, Civil Rights icon and Georgian Congressman, John Lewis offers his perspective…

What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama…

As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.”

Despite the controversy surrounding this statement I don’t see Rep. Lewis’ reference to George Wallace as meant to be a direct comparison of John McCain to the segregationalist former Alabama Governor, stopping there to feign umbrage completely misses the point. I do see it as a potent historical reminder and preemptive warning from a man whose authority on the matter is undisputed. You don’t need to look very deep into history to see how a divisive “They’re not like us” political theme begets an escalation of bigotry and violence. I don’t think of McCain as a bigot by any means nor do I wish to project the people in the above videos as representative of McCain/Palin supporters or Republicans in general, but this divisiveness cannot remain passively tolerated, ignored or perpetuated, and I do feel that the current trajectory of McCain’s campaign is guilty of just that. Dismissing the shouts of “Kill Him” or “Bomb Obama” as the vitriolic outbursts of a one or two  ”nuts in the crowd”  ignores the more terrifying fact that this crowd met these “nuts” with complacency if not consent.   

L.Arnell

p.s.  The Ill Doctrine has some sage advice.