Opinion

A President Was Killed the Last Time Right-Wing Hatred Ran Wild Like This
Friday 18 September 2009

by: Eric Boehlert | Media Matters for America



President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. (Photo wikimedia commons)
That being John F. Kennedy, who was gunned down in Dallas, of course.

I've been thinking a lot of Kennedy and Dallas as I've watched the increasingly violent rhetorical attacks on Obama be unfurled. As Americans yank their kids of class in order to save them from being exposed to the President of the United States who only wanted to urge them to excel in the classroom. And as unvarnished hate and name-calling passed for health care 'debate' this summer.

The radical right, aided by a GOP Noise Machine that positively dwarfs what existed in 1963, has turned demonizing Obama--making him into a vile object of disgust--into a crusade. It's a demented national jihad, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times.

But I've been thinking about Dallas in 1963 because I've been recalling the history and how that city stood as an outpost for the radical right, which never tried to hide its contempt for the New England Democrat.

Now, in this this month's Vanity Fair, Sam Kashner offers up in rich detail the hatred that ran wild in Dallas in 1963. To me, the similarity between Dallas in 1963 and today's unhinged Obama hate is downright chilling.

Kashner's fascinating cover story actually chronicles the professional struggles of writer William Manchester who was tapped by the Kennedy family, after the president's assassination, to write the definitive book about the shooting. The Vanity Fair articles details the power struggles, and epic lawsuits, that ensued prior to Manchester's publication.

But this unnerving passage from VF caught my eye. In it, Kashner retraces Manchester's step as he researched his book. It's unsettling because if you insert "Obama" for every "Kennedy" reference, it reads like 2009:

Manchester also discovered that Dallas "had become the Mecca for medicine-show evangelists … the Minutemen, the John Birch and Patrick Henry Societies, and the headquarters of [ultra-conservative oil billionaire] H. L. Hunt and his activities."

"In that third year of the Kennedy presidency," Manchester wrote, "a kind of fever lay over Dallas country. Mad things happened. Huge billboards screamed, ‘Impeach Earl Warren.’ Jewish stores were smeared with crude swastikas.…Radical Right polemics were distributed in public schools; Kennedy’s name was booed in classrooms; corporate junior executives were required to attend radical seminars."

A retired major general ran the American flag upside down, deriding it as "the Democrat flag." A wanted poster with J.F.K.’s face on it was circulated, announcing "this man is Wanted" for—among other things—"turning the sovereignty of the US over to the Communist controlled United Nations" and appointing "anti-Christians … aliens and known Communists" to federal offices.

And a full-page advertisement had appeared the day of the assassination in The Dallas Morning News accusing Kennedy of making a secret deal with the Communist Party; when it was shown to the president, he was appalled. He turned to Jacqueline, who was visibly upset, and said, "Oh, you know, we’re heading into nut country today."

Manchester discovered that in a wealthy Dallas suburb, when told that President Kennedy had been murdered in their city, the students in a fourth-grade class burst into applause.
Today, conservatives are expressing outrage that Rep. Nancy Pelosi had the nerve to raise concerns about the onrush of violent political rhetoric. The Noise Machine claims it has no idea what Pelosi's talking about. But the truth is, America's most famous bouts of political violence (i.e. JFK, Oklahoma City, etc.) have always been accompanied by waves of radical, right-wing rhetoric. Given that history, the GOP's insistence that the hate now filling the streets couldn't possibly inspire violence seems woefully naive.

http://www.truthout.org/091909C?n


It is just no good.

Yep they are all whacko's at the town hall meetings and the tea parties. All Dems better beware!
Seems the ones saying these things are the ones spreading the fear. I've been to 2 tea parties and they were peacfull and no one even thought of anything like that.

The whole opinion is a joke and people wrighting these opinions are just trying to start trouble because they want those who oppose government to do something so they can say I told you so. It discusts me to see and read things like this. But guess what? I'm not going to get violent about it, sorry to disapoint.

The truth does hurt sometimes.

Sadly, this truth here could hurt many extremely bad.

Copy and paste;
It's all a lie created by left-wing, radical, racist, fringe, extremists, haters!

You wish. Sadly I wish the truth of it wasn't true but it is.

Where is the truth in what you posted? It's someones opinion.
Seems to me it's trying to intice violence.
Maybe if some of the liberals would stop trying to prove racism that isn't there on a majority, or calling people nazi's, or the CIA liers, I could go on, you left wingers are the ones doing it.

It's definitely not just the left wingers calling names. You can clearly see that here in the forums.

The truth of it is there to read and if not there, research it. Kennedy had the same things said and done to him that are being done today. Except today there is the racial hatred as more gas to the fire than before.

Hatred has hit the streets of this country again and we thought we had seen the end of it during the civil rights movement.

All the "right wingers" I know of revere Kennedy in a way because he rebelled against the fiat money establishment and helped stabilize the dollar (which lasted till Nixon and his fellow evil-doers destroyed the last vestige of stable money). I personally suspect that this is one of the reasons he was killed-the international bankers would've lost their power and prestige if Kennedy had been able to continue pushing for sound money. If he had survived to finish his legacy, we wouldn't be tied down in so many wars for profit and imperial conquest (like Iraq).

Besides, I doubt that the anger towards the government is simply partisan. There are all sorts of people who just don't like the government taking their money through taxation and inflation. When money is low, people lash out irrationally, no matter who's in office.

Okay, good guess, I guess, but the some of the same hatred was used against him as we are seeing today except it is stronger today because of the racists hatred.

Since I wasn't alive then, you'll have to tell me what "right-wingers" hated Kenndy. Every time I hear a "right-winger" talk about Kennedy, it's in a tone of reverence. (they especially seem fond of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban embargo)

My mother and all her conservative friends hated Kennedy... still to this day she lets everyone know what she thought of him when it comes up...

Manchester discovered that in a wealthy Dallas suburb, when told that President Kennedy had been murdered in their city, the students in a fourth-grade class burst into applause.

This is documented. How do the children learn so much hatred?

That's actually pretty sad...

Very interesting thread.

It's almost like a perfect storm coming together with the hate, racism, bad economy and wars.

Yea and it's all Obama's fault, look out Mr. President

They blamed Kennedy the same way.

Look at what you said. I mean, just look at it. Is this really how you view the world?

Yes I know what I said and I stand by it. Look at the opinion posted, you deem that ok and is that how you view the world?

I consider this to be a self-evident fact. Listen to all kinds of people talk in your community, at work, on the bus, in the bar, wherever. Listen to the comments being made on public boards, even here at JSH.

On the right, racism amongst some is working synergistically with other motivations to discredit the president. Its wrong.

On the left, people are seeking to invalidate criticism of the president by overstating the influence of race, sometime painting any critic as a racist. Thats wrong.

These particular people on the left are not interested in doing something positive about our racial problems, they are using it politically. Thats wrong.

And back on the right, to counter the above, some people are trying to act like racism hardly even exists. Thats wrong.

What I see, is a mess. Its the old political standby of being divisive for its own sake.

Which part?