I've been watching the election campaign in the USA with a growing sense of disgust. Disgust at the tone and the ugliness on display. This from a country that espouses democracy and pretends to be morally superior to other countries.
What I am talking about is the vitriolic language used by the McCain-Palin camp and their followers against Barack Obama. There have been numerous episodes where Republican spokespersons have used Senator Obama's middle name (Hussein) to imply that he is not a real American, and to imply that he is Muslim. The other day at a rally in Minnesota, a McCain supporter said that she understood that Senator Obama was “Arab”.
I guess being “accused” of being Muslim or Arab is a negative in American politics. Why is it that in this and age it is still OK to vilify a whole religion and a whole people? I came across a press release by Dr. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, who has said “Enough is Enough” to this bigotry (read his post here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/john-mccain-i-am-an-arab_b_133884.html ). Bravo Dr. Zogby.
With all the complaints about the increase of negative advertising in Canadian election campaigns, at least we can be thankful that we do not have this kind of disgusting behaviour in Canada.
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