So I came home tonight from work after a day of quiet rage over McCain’s lies about Barack Obama and sex with kindergartners, and watched The Rachel Maddow Show (thank God for Rachel Maddow), and discovered that a “lipstick” controversy has dominated the day’s news coverage.
I wouldn’t be so angry if I didn’t care so much about this country and it’s future. That’s the price you pay for being patriotic: ugly, revolting campaign tactics give you high blood pressure, especially when the candidate launching these attacks intends to follow a course of action that will run this country into the ground.
Attention all Obama supporters who are sending anxious e-mails and text messages fretting that Obama may not be tough enough to fight the smears: YOU’RE WRONG! Please pay attention to what Obama has been saying from the beginning: This campaign is not about him. This campaign is about you! Obama is a fighter and he’s fighting hard but he can’t do it alone. It’s up to you now to decide whether or not you’re ready to fight.
Fighting means taking every (reasonable and appropriate) opportunity to say what you honestly believe. Fighting means saying it with moral conviction and with a sense of justified outrage. Fighting means letting McCain supporters know there’s a price they must pay in your eyes when they stoop to defend the indefensible behavior of a scumbag (McCain) who launches stupid, cynical, deceitful attacks and then claims to ”put country first.”
If you’re wondering how to phrase your outrage, let Obama (the master, in my opinion) be your guide. Here’s what he said today in responding to the McCain attacks:
OBAMA: Before we begin today I want to say a few words about the latest made-up controversy by the John McCain campaign. Now what their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark, try to take it out of context, throw up an outrageous ad because they know that it’s catnip for the news media. Some of you may have, I’m assuming you guys heard this watching the news. I’m talking about John McCain’s economic policies. I say “this is more of the same. You can put lipstick on a pig but its still a pig.” And suddenly they say, “Oh, you must be talking about the Governor of Alaska.” See, it would be funny. It would be funny except the media all decided that was the lead story yesterday. They’d much rather have the story — this is the McCain campaign — would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversions than about the future. This happens every election cycle. Every four years this is what we do. We’ve got an energy crisis. We have education, we have an education system that is not working for too many of our children, and making us less competitive. We have an economy that is creating hardship for families all across America. We’ve got two wars going on. Veterans coming home not being cared for. And this is what they want to talk about. This is what they want to spend two out of the last 55 days talking about. You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It’s not the Democratic candidate. It’s not the Republican candidate. It’s you, the American people. Because then we go another year or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you. Enough! I don’t care what they say about me, but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics. Enough is enough!
This is the question we should be asking ourselves and everyone else: Do you love your country enough to care about whether the right-wing slimeballs “take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics”?
Because this election is about patriotism.
And here’s another question we should be asking: What happens if Obama loses? What this will prove to many liberals is that campaigns based on cynical, nasty smears and lies win, and campaigns based on messages of “hope” and “change” and talking about this country’s future lose.
If Obama loses, Democrats will learn their lesson and when the Democratic primary heats up again in 2011, Dems won’t be looking for a candidate who can inspire with his hopeful rhetoric about uniting the country and working for a more peaceful, prosperous and secure future. No — if Obama loses, Dems in 2011 will be looking for a candidate who can spew lies and smears and venom better than any Democrat they’ve ever seen before. If Obama loses, 2011 will be the year of the Democratic demagogue, the Democrat who isn’t afraid to paint the Republican party and Republicans in general as evil incarnate.
Because if Obama loses, it will prove (or seem to prove) that nastiness always triumphs over real leadership in presidential politics. This will be bad for the country.
So here’s the question: Do you love your country? Do you love your family, your friends, and the Americans you see passing you on the street on your way to work? Do you want to subject them to a more bloated deficit, a more dangerous world, more poverty, less health care, more despair, less hope, etc., etc.? And do you want to subject them to a political season in 2011 that is more about “lipstick” and “sex ed for kindergartners” than it is about our future?
Then here’s what I suggest: read Obama’s comment above and take it seriously. Because this “lipstick” madness is how we lose our country.