The grand tradition in American Politics to denigrate one's opposition is alive and well. Thank god we no longer have to endure half-truths and spin. Now, we can have good old fashion American mud-slinging. In fact, this tradition dates back to 1800 and the Jefferson/Adams election. When you think of it, it is what makes this country what it is. We revel in slime as a nation and as individuals. How else to describe our irrational desire to read the Enquirer or our morbid curiosity at the site of a horrific car accident or the popularity of inane horror flicks.
Now, Sarah Palin, the linguistically challenged Alaskan Governor, took off the gloves and threw the first bare fisted punch. How appropriate! The rifle totting, wolf slaughtering, god fearing, heavenly directed savior of conservative democracy steps up to the plate to call a spade a spade. No, racial slur intended and Obama people better not bring that up or McCain and his surrogates will call it playing the race card. It is “la-la” land to be sure.
One learns in logic class that ad hominem arguments are “ always invalid in syllogistic logic, since the truth value of premises is taken as given, and the validity of a logical inference is independent of the person making the inference.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem). I am sure that Governor Palin probably missed that lecture while attending college. One can hear the wheels spinning in her head: “Heck, the mean spirited 'gotcha' press will probably ask a question like that. Heck, Joe six-pack and hockey moms don't care about logic. That's for those high-fluttin liberals who went to elite college and learned all that stuff. In small towns, we know what we know and know how to say it.” Wink, wink.
As a young boy my mom cautioned me that “people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.” Well, now that the gloves are off I guess it's okay to talk about McCain's involvement in the Savings and Loan Scandal. While one has to employ the notion of six degrees of separation to tie Obama to anything negative, we have a senate panel chastising McCain for his association with Keating. It is ironic that McCain is directly tied to a felonious larceny charge while the other connection, the Ayers thing, relates to a person who has made some honorable contribution to society. Of course, to a small minded person a university professor might not be as creditable as say a gun dealer. And Jesus may forgive but I won't.
But, what the heck, this is America and why not slam the other guy. Who wants to talk of things that matter when we can create lies and bake half truths into a terrorist soufflé? It is American to go into matters not related to anything to make the point that you shouldn't vote the other guy into office. But there is an underlying element to this campaign and that is Americans are really that dumb that they can look at the crisis facing the country on so many fronts and ignore all that and believe that “the barracuda” will save us from those things that she can't even articulate. For the second time in this blog the quote attributed to Lincoln is in order, “You can't fool all the people all the time.”
This election is a pivotal one for many reasons. First, there is a minority of color running for president. This is pivotal because it at once takes the promise of our constitution into the next millennium. The actual elimination of the color barrier at the highest elected office of the land fulfills the promise of a free society. Second, this election also reverses the creed popularize by conservatives that government is bad. The people of a land only has its government to protect them from the savagery of unscrupulous and immoral and unethical thugs who steal and murder and degrade the laws of humanity. This notion that government is bad is paradoxical. Because only with a government can a free society exist. Without government, you have the law of the jungle.
Government in the hands of small minded people is a government that is a danger to all. We need only look at the current administration to know that the time for no nothing, do nothing politicians is over. Responsible government is important. But government is necessary without it no one would take the bad and the dumb to task.
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