We All Know What Must Be Done

Via Juan Cole, McCain spokesman Mike Goldfarb was on CNN today warning everyone again about Obama's anti semitic friends. The host asked him a few times to name someone beside Rashid Khalidi to which Goldfarb keeps repeating "We all know who it is" and smirking like a little bitch. You have to see it to believe it.



The whole thing is very reminiscent of South Park. In one episode the anti semitic Cartman is trying to arrange a second holocaust under the guise of support for The Passion of the Christ. At his little rally he keeps talking about "what we all know must be done".



I know all week there has been some running debate over whether the McCain campaign/Republicans are a bunch of racists. I think the differences here come down to a matter of perspective that the South Park clip illustrates pretty well.

Are the vast majority of folks in the crowd racists? No - they hear "what must be done" and fill in their own meaning. Is Senator McCain(/Mel Gibson) a racist? Definitely not (though I am a little less sure about Mel). Are Mike Goldfarb, Eric Cartman, and a huge chunk of the current Republican operative class racists? Even on this count I am not 100% sure the answer is yes.

But whatever all the actors personal virtues, when you step back and look at the forest it is absolutely undeniable that Cartman and Goldfarb and his ilk are trying to whip up pogroms against the Jews, African Americans, and Muslims. We live in a country with the greatest tradition of protecting speech. But contra Sarah Palin, that doesn't mean we should shy away from calling a spade a spade or keep offering a megaphone to these people.