- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
The things people say to each other at the gym, at the dinner table, wherever people congregate--these things do matter, especially now that they can be spread exponentially by email.
No matter how stupid or wrongheaded the story is, or the people spreading it, it does matter that this information is out there. And the loudest mouths, the Rush Limbaughs and Michael Savages are making it the gospel.
Informal networks can have a lot of power--and email amplifies that power. Many people do not follow politics, and will go along with the opinions of others. One loud mouth can influence the votes of many.
From a military family member, I was forwarded an email smear about Obama dissing the troops while he was in the Middle EAst. (You know how Dems "hate America," "hate the troops," and are "elitist"--especially a certain uppity black ones.) Completely false and debunked already--but there were hundreds on the forwards before it got to me. Fortunately, one military wife replied to all with "Why This Military Family Is Voting for Obama."
I think it's important for all Democrats to address this, at the national and kitchen table scale--John Kerry waited much too long. In 2000, Al Gore failed to answer an NRA smear campaign (total lies about how Al was keen on gun control) and people believed it. And they voted against him in counties he'd won in for decades. And if Al had carried his home state, he'd be president now by electoral and popular vote.
McCain trolls--shame on you! What hypocrisy! Your candidate was seriously harmed by the infamous "black baby" whispering campaign in SC. I won't be voting for McCain in November, but he probably would have been a better president than Dumbya. You and your candidate should be very ashamed to be elected on the basis of stupid fear-based lies, when such serious issues face us. We deserve a better national discussion than "black baby," "secret Muslim," and who's having sex somewhere. Please prove to America you don't have to be the biggest lying slimeball to win the Presidency.
PS: Still not sure about the Muslim thing? Well, Islam is not a "faith alone" kind of religion--that is a Protestant concept. You can't just believe it in your head, you have to walk the walk--the prayers, the alms, the fasting, etc.
