Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Assassination is the Answer

I’m tired of it, period. I’m tired of the latest answer to the mysterious aura Senator Barack Obama seems to have over many in the country.

In what has now become a trend in the heated primaries for the next President, Fox News political contributor Liz Trotta, “joked” over the weekend that assassinating Obama is something we could use.



Fox News Pundit Apologizes for 'Joke' about Killing Obama

This latest violent, savage-like solution to the problem of how to bring down their opponent seems to have caught on in circles of desperate politicians and pundits who are out of answers to the question: “how do I beat this guy?”

Former governor of Arkansas and former candidate for President, Mike Huckabee also “jokingly” had an off the cuff statement about Obama being shot at while speaking to the NRA. Many have taken presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s comparison to the assassination of Robert Kennedy as a sign that she is staying in the Democratic primary race just in case history repeats itself here in 2008.



Let’s see, the American way is to allow candidates to present their stances and solutions to issues that face this country. To let the people, the supposed ones that run this country, know what kind of elected official they will be and through the process of voting, choose a winner. Now that we’ve once again embarked on this journey that we carry out every 4 years, the agony of defeat seems to be too much for some to handle. Now that the protocol strategy of slandering, fear mongering, name calling, and outright lying has ceased to work in a timely fashion, the only option left is…murder.

Is this really what our country has come to? While we try to spread hope, liberty, and democracy throughout the world are we now advocating guns, death threats, and assassination? There isn’t one person in the political sphere that doesn’t realize that there are still people in this country that are so strongly against having the “appearance” of a Black president that they are willing to kill the man that could occupy that role.

They know that Obama has had to utilize the Secret Service sooner than other candidate due to the higher risk he carries while campaigning. If they didn’t, then why haven’t there have been jokes about someone finishing the job on John McCain that the Vietnamese didn’t when they had him as a prisoner during the Vietnam War?

Why wasn’t the latest knee slapping joke in 2004 about John Kerry getting shot while campaigning across the country? They’re not jokes because the country would be left with mouths wide open, looking at the aspiring comedian with enough disgust to bury them on stage. I for one am completely revolted by the desperately barbaric tenor this race has taken.

Although every big named player that has blurted this “gaffe” of calling for an assassination has apologized, it’s disturbing that the thought of such a solution thrives in their minds. If one can laugh and joke about something so horrific, they are providing a window into the way their mind works.

Somewhere along the way from our humble and courageous beginnings as a nation, we’ve begun to forget the elements that made us so great. We still teach our children that if they work hard and strive to be all they can be, anything can be accomplished, even being the President of the United States.

The part we’re forgetting to tell them is that if you don’t win the way you planned to, you can always just ask someone to kill the person that is working harder and is beating you. Proud of yourself?

By Jayar Jackson, producer over at The Young Turks