I hate to, but ...

I have to talk about the election today.

I'm really not excited by this election, perhaps because I'm not inspired by either of the two leading candidates (and the Libertarians let me down this time). I have not watched any of the debates and I've tried my best to tune out most of the election noise. I have looked at both candidates "plans" and I've decided which one I'd be less unhappy with. [Here's a hint -- the running mate selections really convinced me which candidate I plan to vote against!] So I've been blissfully ignoring the political chatter.

Then, though, I read this column by E.J. Dionne, Jr. in The Washington Post and I just have to comment. In case you don't want to read the whole thing, Dionne says that the McCain campaign may be (inadvertently?) paving the way for the reemergence of the far right as a political force -- "a new movement built around fear, xenophobia, racism and anger."

False claims that Obama is Muslim, that he trained to overthrow the government and that he was educated in Wahhabi schools are a standard part of the political discussion. These fake stories come from voices on the ultra right that have dabbled in other forms of conspiracy, including classic anti-Semitism. McCain and his campaign do not pick up the most extreme charges. They just fan the flames by suggesting that voters don't really know who Obama is, hinting at a sinister back story without filling in the details. That is left to the voters' imaginations.

I don't doubt that there are some angry, scared, xenophobic racists who plan to vote for McCain because he is a white man with a familiar name. What I quibble with is Dionne's assumption that this is the power base of McCain's support (or even the Republican party). To me it's no different from the wackos who think Bush was behind the Sept. 11 bombings and who insisted on the legitimacy of the TX Air National Guard memo long after it was shown to be a fake. [I'm not claiming GWB did not shirk his duty; I'm just saying the smoking gun memo was a fake.] I know there are "far lefties" out there that would not vote for McCain for any reason. I don't extrapolate from that, though, to presume that all Obama supporters (or Democrats) are members of Moveon.org or similar groups, even though they may get a disproportionate amount of attention at times.

So two things puzzle me about Dionne's column. First, the fact that there are people who buy into the notion that Obama is a closet Muslim seeking to undermine the country does not, to me, indicate that this is a major political force. Even the often repeated claim that 20% of voters surveyed think he's a Muslim appears to be a little shaky. I looked at the Pew Center surveys and it seems to me that the 20% figure probably reflects the percentage that had HEARD Obama is Muslim. I'm in that 20% but I don't believe it, so I don't see how that's relevant to bias against Obama (though the percentage believing it does seem to be rising). True, the rumor wouldn't be out there if Obama were a white male with an "American" name, but I don't think the existence of the rumor implies that much about the political will of the nation. I know people who are voting against Obama primarily because of religion, but it is their own religious views (primarily about abortion) rather than a rumor about Obama, that seem to be motivating them.

Second, I'm not sure I like the implied smear against McCain. Even Dionne points out that McCain has, "begun to insist, against the sometimes loud protests from his crowds, that Barack Obama is, among things, a 'decent person'."

So decry the fact that there are people who think any black man with a foreign name must be the anti-Christ (another rumor), but I don't think that indicates a groundswell of political support for the position. Nor do I think it says a whole lot about John McCain.