it’s the company you keep

I know a lot of you out there don’t plan to vote for Barack Obama. I can accept that. As much as I think America desperately needs the hope for a better future that he embodies, I can admit that he’s deficient in certain areas. And, I can see how his charisma and celebrity status might put some people off. I get all that. And I don’t want to change your mind. What I would like to convince you of, however, is that McCain and Palin do not deserve your vote. I can’t see as how an intelligent voter could, in good conscience, support individuals who have, over the course of this campaign, appealed to the basest elements in our nature, with so little concern for the damage being done to our country. McCain and Palin have lied, engaged in race baiting, and even gone so far as to infer that their opponent – a respected United States Senator and professor of constitutional law – is a terrorist, and a threat to our nation. I have to think that a majority of Republicans, if they took the time to reflect on the way this campaign was run, would agree that this kind of behavior reprehensible.

With all due respect to my friends, family members and readers who think of themselves as Republicans, the party to which you belong is no longer the party of Lincoln. The Republican party has, over the course of the past several years, become the party of intolerance, dishonesty and contempt for the rule of law. It is no longer a party of ideas. It has become the last refuge of anti-intellectuals, and fear mongers. It is the party of Sarah Palin.

Don’t take my word for it — watch the video of people entering a McCain/Palin rally. These are the people you will be joining tomorrow morning should you decide to support this Republican ticket.

And this wasn’t an isolated event. This is the new Republican base. This kind of behavior is now the norm. And, it’s getting worse. Over the course of the campaign, things and gotten uglier, and uglier, and uglier, to the point where even McCain has stopped interacting with his supporters in his town hall meetings. And these are the people you will be aligning yourself with when you pull the lever for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

And here, by way of contrast, is a representative video from the Obama campaign. I don’t include it in hopes that you will suddenly see the light and cast your ballot for the candidate that I’m supporting. I just include it to demonstrate the difference in tenor between the two campaigns. My hope is that maybe, just maybe it will encourage you to demand more from your party in the future. There’s no reason the Republican party can’t change course. There’s no reason it cannot be reconstructed from the ground up. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen if you, and other moderate Republicans, cast your votes for McCain and Palin tomorrow morning. For that reason, I’d like to ask you to stay home, and stop this headlong dash toward fear and ignorance that we can all see the Republican party making.