danger

The 1st Amendment to the U.S. constitution protects free speech.  Thus, citizens, and political candidates are granted the right to say almost anything they want with few legal repercussions.  Note the “almost” reference.  Lately, the McCain-Plain campaign has come dangerously close to crossing the line on what is acceptable.  They have decided to associate U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama with the brand of “terrorist.”  To take a line from many well known Western films, “them’s fightin words!”

The Supreme Court, in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942), stated that “fighting words”—words which by their very utterance tend to incite an immediate breach of peace”—are not subject to protection under the First Amendment.  In a time when terrorism is considered one of the most dangerous threats to civil society, using the term in close association with a Senator who was popularly elected in his state, and is a major party presidential candidate, is dangerously irresponsible and close to illegal.

Just to be clear, this is NOT a legal claim, it is a moral claim.

Recently, the Republican ticket has used lines that incite anger and fear not only among those attending their presidential ticket’s rallies, but the American public in general.  These lines include statements such as, Obama, “pals around with terrorists,” and “thinks so little of our country.” They’ve also questioned who Obama is with “Who is the real Barack Obama?”  When a crowd member from a recent Republican rally yelled out, “A Terrorist!” that’s when the McCain-Palin campaign should have known they had gone too far.  Earlier in the campaign McCain suggested Obama should have clarified his “lipstick on a pig” comment, but when faced with the clear “Terrorist!” remark, McCain did nothing.  Nothing.

Even worse, in my opinion, Lee County (Fla.) Sheriff  Mike Scott took the stage to introduce Sara Palin and yelled: “On Nov. 4th, let’s leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened!”  Scott is an elected law enforcement official, who was campaigning in uniform and intentionally invoking Obama’s middle name with the purpose of instigating the crowd.  If I were a Democrat, Muslim, Immigrant, or person of color in Lee County, I would be very unnerved by my Sheriff making these types of political remarks. 

Why are these connotations and words dangerous? They are because people do not want to shake hands with terrorists, they want to kill them.  If individuals come to believe that McCain and Palin are trustworthy, and truthful with their characterizations of Obama then shouldn’t we have good reason to believe that someone hearing these words will potentially take some action to save the country?  In essence, the McCain campaign has knowingly (or maybe unknowingly) put a target on Barack Obama, and we should all be very fearful any campaign who would employ such a tactic.

Let’s be clear, invoking fighting words such as terrorist (especially “domestic terrorist”), and suggesting that Obama may be a secret part of some larger conspiracy is very close to a violation of free speech.  The words are not obscene, but they can be construed as inciting anger, fear, and a justification for stopping an Obama presidency at any cost.

This strategy is not honorable, it is not respectable, it is not American, it is not what we would expect from an American hero, and it is not what we should expect from a person running for the highest office in the land.  Shame on John McCain, his campaign, and everyone who continues to question whether Obama who [again] is an national elected official, and the nominee of a major political party, loves this country.