Red (State) Scare

The Republican Party is in utter disarray - the wheels are flying off, people are abandoning ship, they are in a nosedive, name any other metaphor for a vehicle crashing, it's happening to the Republicans. Now, I certainly don't want to start clicking my heels together just yet since this is a close race and there's still two weeks to go, but there's no doubt that even if McCain pulls it off and wins, it'll be like becoming the new lead singer for Journey. Sure, Journey was an awesome band, but there's no Steve Perry!

A lot of issues came to a boil this weekend and if you're unlike me and you have a life, you probably missed out on a lot. On Friday, Sarah Palin mentioned how much she loves visiting "the pro-America parts of the country," pretty much abandoning any subtlety that the Republicans had left and just flat-out said they truly think that only certain states, cities or towns are American. Basically saying that if you live in New York, Chicago, LA, or any place where there's not necessarily a huge concentration of white Christians, you hate America.

Minnesota Congresswoman (and lunatic) Michele Bachmann did an interview on Friday where she called for an investigation of the United States congress to see which members were anti-American. I did a piece on Neo-McCarthyism a few months back, I'd like to thank Michele Bachmann for proving my point. If you needed anymore evidence that the Neocons are desperately trying to take this country back to the 1950s, just turn on one of your 24 cable news outlets, the big word of the day is "socialist," oh no, the Reds are coming!

Much like McCarthyism, you don't need to provide any actual facts or evidence to prove that your opponent is a dirty Commie, just repeat it over and over and eventually someone will believe you. Barack Obama is this America-hating socialist liberal that's looking to redistribute wealth! Yeah, I'm sure that's why the richest man on the planet, Warren Buffet, has endorsed him for president, he's just going to let his $65 billion get spread around! Of course, all Obama is going to do is cut taxes on 95% of the country and then raise taxes on the upper 5% to what they were when Bill Clinton was president. But you can understand why Republicans would be upset about that, despite the eight years of peace, the roaring economy and the low unemployment rates, people were getting blowjobs! Clearly, we can't let our children be reminded of such a dark time in our nation's past. Oh Republicans, you're so cute sometimes.

All this nonsense came to a screeching halt today when a true American hero endorsed Barack Obama - General Colin Powell. The Republican General Colin Powell... the former Secretary of State for the Bush Administration Colin Powell... one of the architects of the Iraq War Colin Powell. How's that for a kick in the balls, Republican Party? Powell's endorsement is a concise rejection of this sleazy, irresponsible and shameless campaign that John McCain has run these last few months. A clear rejection of these ideas put forth by Michele Bachmann that part of our congress hates America; a clear rejection of the hate being spewed and encouraged at McCain rallies where people call for the assassination of a political candidate; and it is certainly a clear rejection of the intelligence-insulting choice of Sarah Palin as a nominee for Vice President.

Colin Powell is a good man that got a raw deal from the Bush Administration after the occupation of Iraq blew up in their face. After it all began to fall apart, he was one of the first people to have the courage to speak out and shortly thereafter, quietly "resigned" as Secretary of State in 2005. Powell isn't afraid to tell it like it is and that goes directly against the ideals of Neocon Republicans, so it's no surprise both sides went their separate ways. Here we are now in the middle of this divisive election and a lifelong Republican, one of our most respected generals, has come out to endorse the Democratic nominee for president because of the horrible campaign that his party is running. He knows McCain will run the country exactly like Bush (into the ground), he knows we won't get away from this culture war under a McCain presidency and he knows it will truly be more of the same, so he's speaking out... very Maverick of him, don't you think?

Of course the right-wing media is already trying to brush this off as a racial thing (how many other black Democrats has Colin Powell directly endorsed? Oh yeah, none), but don't let their racism get to you. The Neocons have very little tricks left up their sleeve, so they're going to throw everything they can at Obama - race, terrorism, socialism, anti-Americanism, elitism, etc. - but just remember, while they're slinging mud, Colin Powell was the Republican that truly put country first.

I'm also troubled by – not what Senator McCain says – but what members of the Party say, and it is permitted to be said: such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim. He's a Christian; has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, "What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?" The answer's "No, that's not America." Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be President? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own Party drop the suggestion he's Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery. And she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards – Purple Heart, Bronze Star; showed that he died in Iraq; gave his date of birth, date of death. He was twenty years old. And then at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It had a crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Karim Rashad Sultan Kahn. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey, he was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11 and he waited until he could go serve his country and he gave his life.

-General Colin Powell (October 19, 2008)