There's a lot of discussion of the increasingly divisive rhetoric from the McCain-Palin campaign -- verbal attacks, violent images, racist tropes and demonization. There have been several cases of vandalism directed at Obama-Biden campaign offices, frequent reports of yard sign theft, and racist language targeted at Obama-Biden volunteers, as well as overtly racist signage from McCain-Palin supporters.
There is nothing whatsoever about this that surprises me. Except, perhaps, that it took until October before it started to be obvious. The various wings of "right" in this nation have been pushing violent and eliminationist rhetoric for years now, operating in a simplistic binary mode which forecloses the possibility of growth, change, compromise or realism.
Rage is the last refuge of the desperate, the flood of adrenaline in a crisis that clouds the mind the burst of vicious energy from a cornered, wounded beast, the violence of incompetence and the substitute for impotence. It is pitiable, perhaps, but it is also very, very dangerous.
We must be firm, we must be fair, we must prevail or see these most damaging habits rewarded and entrenched.
* "S.S.D.D." = "Same Shit, Different Day"
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