So-called ‘Conservatives’ spread ideology of hate Jim Purcell, Publisher Posted:11/29/08
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I attend graduate school two nights a week in Manhattan, and have been doing this for a few years at this point. The drives from Middletown to New York are long, and so I end up listening to some Talk Radio.
A lot of these Talk Radio hosts are Conservatives, angry at the election of Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama over Arizona U.S. Senator John McCain during the recent presidential election, held earlier this month. In particular, I think hosts Sean Hannity and Michael Savage are probably the angriest at this election, of those I sometimes listen to.
The kinds of things being said by these hosts are alarming, as are the comments made by regular listeners to these shows.
I have certainly been critical of politicians’ actions during my writing career. I have frequently disagreed with politicians at various levels of government publicly. But I have never heard of anyone’s deceased mother being made such sport of as I have President-elect Obama’s. It is reprehensible the way these so-called “Conservatives” attack a dead woman with such venom.
It used to be that bringing nasty information and commentary about personal lives and families were out of line in newspapers and media. Well, that has certainly changed in the Conservative camp.
I think it is poor enough taste for these so-called commentators to make a very handsome living by doing nothing more than vilifying those with what is characterized maliciously as a “liberal” outlook.
These “communications professionals,” and there are far more of them than just Mr. Hannity and Mr. Savage, should feel ashamed of themselves for characterizing taxpaying Americans, who happen to subscribe to so-called liberal or Democratic politics, as “terrorists,” “Marxists,” “socialists” or several other widely used, fallacious criticisms.
Yet, in general, a favorite target has become Mr. Obama’s late mother. It is regularly brought up by these people that Mr. Obama’s mother was a white woman who married a black Kenyan man. And what of it? Allusions like this one are just racist nonsense being dressed up and put out over the air: It’s just hate. As if people need to fan the flames of racists for the heck of it?
Then there is some nonsense about the president-elect’s “secret birth.” Actually, this ranting has all the appeal of a fiendish fairy tale, being woven by some very angry people who find it impossible to accept the fact that a simple majority of Americans just didn’t agree with the Conservative point of view that had enjoyed eight years of nearly unobstructed reign over this country. And, what this philosophy has brought this country is endless war, economic disaster, a loss of credibility across the world, and joblessness the likes of which has not been seen for decades.
So Americans elected someone not characterizing themselves as a “Conservative,” whose policies are more defined than a “Stay the Course” bumper sticker, and all of a sudden Mr. Obama’s dead mother becomes fair game.
During Mr. Bush’s terms, I was certainly no fan. I criticized some of Mr. Bush’s policies and an apparent lack of sensitivity toward the views of most Americans. I certainly never had an inclination to rundown his mother or father, wife or daughters, pets or ancestors. I never questioned he was an American and, at the very least, trying to do a good job. I just didn’t think he was very good at the presidential thing.
Apparently, though, I have a lot to learn about making it big in offering public opinion. It seems the “real pros” these days are the ones who go after deceased mothers, fabricate preposterous stories and prey on race. The whole effort is despicable, in my opinion. It's just a reminder that the Age of the Ugly Ameican is far from over. There's plenty of 'ugly' to still go around.
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