Where there's a Will, there's a way

I complain about conservative talk radio often enough. There's a quasi-fascist movement in this country egged on by conspiracy theorists like Glenn Beck and Michael Savage. And no, I don't think that describes their entire listening audience, but they try to move people in a destructive direction by appealing to the worst aspects of human nature.

With conservative talk shows and books calling liberals godless traitors and terrorist sympathizers, we saw Barack Obama attacked as a radical Muslim who "palls around with terrorists." It shouldn't surprise anyone that poeple started shouting to kill Obama during McCain rallies. It wasn't just a few isolated crazies. It was the natural result of people being egged on by hate-mongers who characterize liberals as a treasonous threat to America, rather than calling them decent people with whom they disagree.

We take it for granted in America that there's no violence after an election, but that's not the case in many other countries. We just elected our first black President after years of the talk radio movement inciting hate in mein-kampfesque rants against liberals. There truly could have been violence after this election and the fact that people started buying up guns by the truckload isn't comforting.

Here's the part where I write something nice. The few talk radio shows I briefly listened to right before and after the election were talking people down. They presented a picture of how conservatives could bounce back in a future election and how Obama could fail, then leading to a Republican comeback. That's important. People turn to political violence when they feel there's no other option, and the talk radio hosts reminded people that there's still hope through the normal electoral process. John McCain deserves credit for his gracious concession speech as well.

Things could have gone differently if some talk radio shows had turned up the rhetoric and incited people to violence. The most extremist talk radio hosts may be egomaniacal hate mongers in the pockets of a corporate fascist agenda, but at least they aren't advocating the violent upheaval of society. That would be bad for business.

I didn't think post-election violence was likely. But I have to admit it was possible when you consider that it happens elsewhere, that we have a long history of racially motivated violence in this country, and that there was recently a shooting at a Unitarian church by a devoted talk radio listener who wanted to kill liberals because he believes they're the horrible enemy his favorite conservative commentators make them out to be.

The fact that things are transitioning smoothly is a reminder that most Americans are pretty level headed. And regardless of your ideology, there are plenty of reasons to be proud of our country.