Ronald Reagan For Obama
Our Choice: A More Perfect Union or A Stalemate?
Today Colin Powell stepped across party lines and endorsed Barack Obama for President. As part of his endorsement, he strongly criticized the tactics of the McCain/Palin campaign, particularly with regard to their current effort to paint Barack Obama as a terrorist.
One of the tactics that Powell strongly objected to was the current spate of robocalls being used by the McCain campaign to stir up fear and hate among the base. Here’s the text. I won’t post the audio here because it is visceral and hateful:
Hello. I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500.
Josh Marshall summed the McCain campaign up this way:
Stripped down to its components McCain’s message to voters is this: “Don’t forget. He’s definitely black. And he may be a terrorist.” That’s the message.
In light of these hateful tactics, I found it useful to go back to Barack Obama’s historic speech on race, delivered 3/18/2008 to see what he predicted. As usual, he was remarkably prescient:
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
After acknowledging the anger of blacks and whites, he calls us to move beyond the old racial wounds:
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
He even has ideas for how to do it:
It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
The McCain campaign wants us to believe that Barack Obama is a scary black guy who will wreck the country. They need to leave this impression because they hope beyond all logic to erase the truth: The last 8 years have wrecked this country more than any of us could have imagined, and John McCain stood right next to George Bush and the Republicans while the wrecking ball slammed into the walls of our banks, insurance companies, Wall Street, social institutions, FEMA, New Orleans, Iraq and the national budget (not to mention the national debt).
We have a choice. Obama knew we had a choice back in March, when he said this:
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.”
Colin Powell understands this. He spoke out so forcefully about what President Palin, the RNC and John McCain are doing with their robocalls, their mailers and their ads as his way of saying NOT THIS TIME.
When Gen. Powell spoke of Barack Obama as a transcendent and transformational leader, who represented generational change, he made a choice to put his country first, to move us toward a more perfect union.
That’s the same choice we all have on November 4th. We can get stuck in all of the distractions that make absolutely no difference to our wallets, or our kids, or our health, or we can stand up and say “not this time”. This time we’re choosing to push past the fears and the wedges, the division and the hate, and say:
Not this time. Say it with me. Stand up. Make your voice heard; say that it’s time to reconcile, to put our country first, ahead of our fears, ahead of ourselves.
Not. this. time.
VOTE. Fight for change.
100,000 Pro-America Americans in St. Louis
Amazing. More than Qualcomm Stadium. Missouri, I love you.
Yes. We. Can.
Text of Senator Obama’s speech
Tell John McCain The Politics of Hate Won’t Work
Dear Senator McCain and Governor Palin,
Time and again in America, people of all races and backgrounds have overcome division and fear, and come together to uplift the country and create a more equal and just society. It’s part of what makes this country great.
With an African-American nominee running on a major party ticket and a woman on the Republican ticket for the first time in history, this campaign has seen Americans–men and women of all races–inspired to continue that great tradition, coming together to bridge the gaps that history has set between us in service of our national progress.
But let us be clear: while we have made great strides in this country when it comes to racial equality, we are not finished. Now, more than ever, we need leadership that understands that we live in complex times where too many are quick to judge another by the complexion of their skin or the sound of their name.
In the last few weeks, Senator McCain and Governor Palin, rhetoric at your campaign events has taken an increasingly dangerous tone that seems to ignore the precarious state of our progress when it comes to race and ethnicity.
Supporters at your rallies and other events have used hateful language and called for violence against Sen. Obama yelling “kill him!” “off with his head!” and “bomb Obama.”
For the most part, you have stood by in silence. In addition, you have also repeatedly made statements that somehow connect Senator Obama with terrorism. Your surrogates have emphasized his middle name. This is problematic and dangerous, and we believe helps create the conditions that have given rise to these incidents of violent rhetoric from some of your supporters.
Today, we’re standing together as Americans of all political persuasions to express our deep concern that the decisions of your campaign are contributing to a dangerous atmosphere of paranoia, division, and hate that, as we have already seen, has the potential to seriously harm our country and its progress.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
In these trying times, candidates seeking the highest offices in the land must call on the best in each of us, and call off the worst.
We urge you to join people of conscience from all races and backgrounds to reject the politics of division and fear, and come together to uplift the country and create a more equal and just society.
– The undersigned —
Sign the letter here
Sphere: Related ContentJohn McCain Defends Hatemongerers. And Lies.
John McCain stood in front of all of us and lied tonight. He said specifically that he’s repudiated every attack made against Barack Obama. He then launched into an incredible defense of the people who shout out at the Palin rallies and the dog whistles to racism:
McCain On Attack Ads: ‘I Can’t Be A Referee Of Every Spot Run On Television.’ “GOP presidential contender John McCain says he can’t control every attack ad aimed at Democrat Barack Obama and fully expects he’ll face a similar barrage, sounding the bell for a raucous general election brawl. ‘I can’t be a referee of every spot run on television,’ McCain told the Herald in an exclusive interview. ‘I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, but we all know there are groups who want to attack me.’” [Boston Herald, 6/12/08]
McCain Surrogate Colonel Bud Day Said, ‘The Muslims Have Said Either We Kneel, Or They’re Going To Kill Us’ And The McCain Campaign Did Not Repudiate Him. “A leading John McCain surrogate stirred controversy Friday after defending the Iraq war in particularly stark terms, telling reporters ‘the Muslims have said either we kneel, or they’re going to kill us.’ Bud Day, who was a prisoner of war with McCain in Vietnam and often advocates for the Arizona senator’s presidential bid, made the comments during a conference call with Florida reporters organized by the Florida Republican Party. ‘I don’t intend to kneel, and I don’t advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn’t advocate to anybody that we kneel,’ he also said. Asked to respond to Day’s comments, the McCain campaign issued a short statement from spokesman Michael Goldfarb. ‘The threat we face is from radical Islamic extremism,’ he said.” [CNN, 7/18/08]
John McCain has not pulled Sarah Palin back from her “hangs out with terrorists” remark, he continues to claim that Obama launched his career from Ayers’ living room, and repeats lie after lie after lie.
When pundits and bloggers say that McCain was at his best tonight, all I can say is that the term “best” should not apply when one is telling a lie.
Sphere: Related ContentWhy it Matters
So much has been made of family values, and so much of family values has been hijacked by the Republicans. The fact is, families are the ones who have been hurt the most by the policies of the last eight years.
This is one of the most compelling videos I’ve seen making the case for why Obama is better for families, and why it matters that he is elected. Made by supporters, it speaks louder than any negative McCain ad, or racist comments made at a rally, or the dog whistles called by the right.
Just watch…and share it.
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