from Truthdig:
McCain the Divider Posted on Sep 4, 2008
By E.J. Dionne
ST. PAUL, Minn.—Once upon a time, John McCain promised to be a different kind of politician and a different kind of Republican. He was about straight talk, reform and nonpartisanship, a resolute foe of the slashing politics of the slaughterhouse.
McCain wants voters to remember that man. But that man has disappeared. His convention, including his running mate Sarah Palin’s big speech on Wednesday, dripped of divisive ridicule as speaker after speaker worked to aggravate the country’s cultural schisms and replay worn-out lines about weak liberals who are soft on terror.
The Republican crowd here gleefully played into the very worst stereotypes of their party as a privileged class resistant to social change.
When Rudy Giuliani referred to Barack Obama’s past as a “community organizer,” the crowd broke into ugly, patronizing laughter. These, presumably, are people who never needed a neighborhood advocate. Imagine if Democrats ever reacted to someone who worked as, say, an entrepreneur or a church leader as these Republicans did to Obama’s old line of work.
And it’s unlikely that even a convention of the American Petroleum Institute would erupt into raucous chants of “Drill, Baby, Drill!” ......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080904_mccain_the_divider/