The Sidewalk to Nowhere
I was planning my Halloween re-decoration for another blog, my personal one, when I fell into the predictable YouTube trap. You have all known it since the beginning of the broadband era: click on one video, link to another, to another, etc. Next thing you know, it’s 4 a.m., your eyes are bloodshot, your ass hurts, and you can’t remember what your goal was in the first place. It’s a lot like trying to keep up with election coverage.
This distraction was a unique one, however, since it dealt with a political subject most dear to my heart: voters in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. I’ve called Bangor my home since 1987, nearly 22 years, and given that Pennsylvania is a large and varied state when it comes to political views, I’ve seen all kinds.
Someone posted the following YouTube video from a John McCain / Sarah Palin rally at Stabler Arena on the Lehigh University campus in Bethlehem, PA. Based on some videos I linked through, I’ve determined the camera operator is an Obama supporter trying to get a sense of what makes someone support John McCain. I’m equally interested in finding out, though not an Obama supporter myself. The video was so shocking, I had to post it here. Keep in mind, I have no connection to the poster of this video whatsoever, and do not endorse any of the political or societal views contained in the video.
What gets me is not the severely distorted, backwoods opinions of Obama, but the blatant and wanton lack of respect for the First Amendment held by the people slowly meandering into the rally, like irritated sheep unable to bat the gnats in their eyes.
I hear all the time from your straight Republican ticket voters that we face a moral crisis in this country, but when they say that, they’re making reference to all the “murdered babies” and smut on TV and lack of hatred for the common Muslim. They’re not talking about the fact that an entire generation of people in America is being taught, mostly through their parents, that our Constitutional rights are part of an outdated mechanism and that protesters and others demonstrate the need to remove Freedom of Speech from people who, by their judgment, don’t deserve it.
The otherwise harmless vitriol the McCain supporters hurl at the protesters is nothing I’d personally get bent out of shape about if I were outside the event holding up signs. I’d expect irritable, goofy, affluent, white people to look at me and think “unemployed college student” or “unemployed college dropout” and start yelling at me to get a job. Well, the correct diagnosis is “unemployed college graduate,” and I’d be happy to get a job at the company they work for, given an interview and a month to pass a drug test.
That is hardly the crisis, where I’m concerned. Free speech that bothers us can only be countered with more free speech, but certain sentiments within that McCain crowd clearly echoed the movement in ideology that neo-cons preach: Support our cause, or else you are a scoundrel and a traitor who deserves whatever harm may come your way. Go ahead, hold up a protest sign that says you think abortion is murder, or that Obama is a terrorist, or even something as ridiculous and unfounded as “God Hates America.” I might call you a stupid asshole that’s never read a book or had an original thought, but I won’t call you unAmerican.
Leave a Reply