Opinion
Sarah Palin’s actions have similarities to McCarthyism
March 31, 2010
Sarah Palin incites violence against healthcare proponents.
And she’s doing it with avid listeners.
Who are the people that can believe the hateful things she says on an almost daily basis?
The woman who failed to name a newspaper she read or a Supreme Court ruling she agreed with during her campaign?
Consistently, this model mother of five has been a thorn in the side of reasonable people willing to base their ideas on fact rather than horror film fiction. Idolized, at first and now by few, as a woman of power and middle American pride, she quickly became a running joke.
Now, however, the ex-governor is just dangerous.
“Don’t retreat, instead reload!”
Were her words on Twitter to discourage voters from supporting the healthcare bill.
Using a rifle scope to identify the twenty seats open before the debate on a board.
For seemingly obvious reasons, the mainstream media saw this as inciting violence and she received quite a few criticisms.
“I think people like Sarah and others need to be careful in their tones and not send the wrong message out there,” Alaska Senator Mark Begich said, on Anchorage television station KTVA. “In my case, I probably wouldn’t have said those comments.”
An amazing trend has begun to occur in the land of conservative pundits: fear tactics.
As their influence in congress wanes and their objectives are not being met, the conserviatives utilize a weapon they have used throughout history.
One of the greatest fear tacticians was Wisconsinite Joe McCarthy and conservatives seem to be joining him in his infamy.
Glenn Beck goes as far to state that the president is attempting to destroy white Americans and their culture.
“This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture….I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people, I’m saying he has a problem.
This guy is, I believe, is a racist,” said Beck on President Obama, sparking an advertiser exodus from his FOX News show.
I’m sorry, but have we failed to learn our lesson?
Has the painful experience of McCarthyism left no trace in our memory of what these types of rhetoric can lead to?
Where do the conservatives get off using the same sort of threatening method we see in military regimes and jihadist training camps?
They just arrested eight Christian Militia members in Michigan for attempthing to kill families of police officers. You want to blame someone for that? Blame the people making the government out to be the Anti-Christ.
Like McCarthy, Palin knows how to drive the debate. While McCarthy’s platform was communism, Palin works off the healthcare reform.
Like McCarthy, the saddest part is the refusal of her party members to reel her in. Instead they allow people like her and Glenn Beck to flame the frenzy created by scared and apocolyptic Christian extremists.
As in the time of McCarthy, Palin is an extreme product of her time and exploits America’s fear of socialism as a conduit to keep herself famous. To that end, she’ll say almost anything.
And Fox News gave her a perfect stage.
Alongside her terrorizing buddy Glenn Beck, it seems that nothing can stop the evil spew of fear and hatred that comes from her mouth.
Mercifully the career of McCarthy was short and I can only wish the same for Palin.
It’s you that can end fear tactics in politics, by simply thinking for yourself. Don’t let people tell you Armageddon is coming because of the healthcare reform. That would make Palin the voice of God, and that’s something too ridiculous to believe.
Right?
Chaia means life and Kimi-Chaia Lindberg tries to live it to the fullest. Writing is what she loves. Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese and English are the words she uses. Tel Aviv is where she is inspired.