The XX Factor: What women really think.

Divided We Fall

Rachael: I have been on the road, but I didn’t want to leave your very smart post unanswered. You and I are in complete agreement that American political discourse has taken a turn for the despicable in recent weeks, and that we are ill-served by the ugliness. But I am going to stand by my claim that campaigns send a message to their supporters about the legitimacy of hating, and that Sarah Palin and John McCain have not just condoned but encouraged it as their campaign has faltered in recent weeks. Americans who are explicitly charged to rage against the press will—as Dana Milbank reported yesterday—happily attack them (racial epithets evidently optional). Americans told that Obama pals around with domestic terrorists may just holler “kill him” in response. Americans repeatedly instructed—as Marjorie wrote yesterday—to view Obama as “not like us” or “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America” cannot be faulted for believing that racism and xenophobia are legitimate modes of political conversation. And I am glad you brought up Obama’s guns and bitterness statement because it highlights the difference between Obama and Palin: Obama’s San Francisco statement was not an attack on gun owners. It was an admittedly artless effort to understand and explain why people in small towns might become single-issue voters. You can call his remarks elitist; they were. But it would be wildly unfair to suggest he was saying those voters are un-American, or irrelevant or unworthy of being engaged. Nobody listening to Obama’s words about small-town voters that day would have responded with “kill them” or “sit down, boy!” These are not small rhetorical differences. Palin is a desperate candidate who seeks to stir up regional and racial hatred and should be held accountable for the way her supporters respond. You and I both agree that the name-calling is cheap and coarsening. I will go one further and say that anyone who believes that some Americans are irrelevant because of their skin color, religion, or hometown is leading her followers right into the abyss we both deplore.