Sadly, when people fear the collapse of their society, they want order and national greatness, not a more nurturing government. READ MORE
In addition, there advantages that the Conservatives have in getting Working-Class people vote Conservative--I know, because back in the 1980's I was not only active in the CPAC--If I remember correctly their letters. Also, when I served in the Army Reserve--I was in a Tactical PsyOp unit, which was once the 21st PsyOp Company. Thank God, I am a civilian where my only job is telling the truth to the best of my knowledge and ability--after all, I am all too easy side tracked and yield to my temper, which at times is more of an hindrance to clear thinking than an asset.
The reason that I gave that part of my bio is because I remember being conned into voting Conservative and hope and pray that others will learn from my mistakes.
First, the reason that it is so easy to get people to vote against Unions, Gays, Hispanics, the poor who are on welfare and other minorities is simple, whether they admit it or not, all they have to do is to play on a person's natural tendency to sin--the sin of 'False Pride'--the all too Human temptation to say that I am better than ____--these Inferior people are getting more than they deserve. After all, 'I' work harder than they do, therefore 'I' am better.
Second, the economy--After all, we Americans, whether we will admit to it or not, have a long Dark history--that when the economy nose dives and employment is high--so is our IN tolerance to others who are different--In the past, it resulted in lynching of African-Americans when and where many were hung to death for the most minor of crimes--excuses.
No, we Americans are not Stupid and Yes, we Americans do study our own history, but various temptations are hard if not impossible to resist, so each generation gets lead to making the same mistakes over and over. I can only hope and pray that my generation can have the will to break the chain--the chain that binds us to repeating history over and over again.
In a matter of fact--Our Dark History of Racial Intolerance during economic hard times was one of the major reasons that I voted McCain/Palin ticket in 2008. After all, it felt too much like a perfect storm. After all, each and every President comes to office under the policies of the previous President, which means the first 12 months for better and or for worse need to be credited or blamed on the previous President--President George W. Bush will no doubt go down in history as the absolute worst President in American History--so having an African-American follow him was the perfect set-up to guarantee that there will not be a second African-American President --- BUT if the economy tanked with yet another Caucasian President--very few if any will think twice about it; especially the older generations of Christian Caucasians--most would just blame the person and only the person.
What we Americans need to remember this election is the Poem--The Hangman.
"The Hangman" is a poem for young adults by Maurice Ogden written in 1951. Its plot concerns a hangman who arrives at a town and executes the citizens one by one. As each citizen is executed, the others are afraid to object out of fear that they will be next. Finally there is nobody remaining in the town except the Hangman and the narrator of the poem. The narrator is then executed by the hangman as there is no one left who will defend him.
The poem contains four-line stanzas with the rhyming pattern AABB.
The poem is usually cited[by whom?] as an indictment of those who stand idly by while others commit grave evil or injustice, such as The Holocaust. The story it tells is very similar to the famous statement "First they came for the communists..." attributed the anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller as early as 1946. It has been interpreted[by whom?] as an attack on McCarthyism, a possibility since the first use of the term "McCarthyism" came on March 29, 1950, in a political cartoon by Herblock of the Washington Post.
THE HANGMAN
By Maurice Ogden
Into our town the hangman came,
smelling of gold and blood and flame.
He paced our bricks with a different air,
and built his frame on the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
only as wide as the door was wide
with a frame as tall, or a little more,
than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal? What the crime?
The hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were with dread,
we passed those eyes of buckshot lead.
Till one cried, "Hangman, who is he,
for whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye
and he gave a riddle instead of reply.
"He who serves me best," said he
"Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down and laid his hand
on a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for anothers grief
at the hangmans hand, was our relief.
And the gallows frame on the courthouse lawn
by tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way and no one spoke
out of respect for his hangmans cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
on roof and street in our quiet town;
and stark and black in the morning air
the gallows-tree on the courthouse square.
And the hangman stood at his usual stand
with the yellow hemp in his busy hand.
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike,
and his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done,
yesterday with the alien one?"
Then we fell silent and stood amazed.
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us,
"Do you think I've gone to all this fuss,
To hang one man? That's the thing I do.
To stretch the rope when the rope is new."
Above our silence a voice cried "Shame!"
and into our midst the hangman came;
to that mans place, "Do you hold," said he,
"With him that was meat for the gallows-tree?"
He laid his hand on that one's arm
and we shrank back in quick alarm.
We gave him way, and no one spoke,
out of fear of the hangmans cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
the hangmans scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
the gallows-tree had taken root.
Now as wide, or a little more
than the steps that led to the courthouse door.
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
half way up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took, we had all heard tell,
was a usurer..., an infidel.
And "What" said the hangman, "Have you to do
with the gallows-bound..., and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
who has served you well and faithfully?"
The hangman smiled, "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows beam."
The fourth man's dark accusing song
had scratched our comfort hard and long.
"And what concern," he gave us back,
"Have you ... for the doomed and black?"
The fifth, the sixth, and we cried again,
"Hangman, hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick", said he, "that we hangman know
for easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased and asked now more
as the hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night
the gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
until they covered the square from side to side.
And the monster cross beam looking down,
cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the hangman came
and called through the empy streets...my name.
I looked at the gallows soaring tall
and thought ... there's no one left at all
for hanging ... and so he called to me
to help take down the gallows-tree.
And I went out with right good hope
to the hangmans tree and the hangmans rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
to the courthouse square...through the silent town.
Supple and stretched in his busy hand,
was the yellow twist of hempen strand.
He whistled his tune as he tried the trap
and it sprang down with a ready snap.
Then with a smile of awful command,
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me Hangman." I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men,
and I'm no henchman of yours." I cried.
"You lied to me Hangman, foully lied."
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye,
"Lied to you...tricked you?" He said "Not I...
for I answered straight and told you true.
The scaffold was raised for none but you."
"For who has served more faithfully?
With your coward's hope." said He,
"And where are the others that might have stood
side by your side, in the common good?"
"Dead!" I answered, and amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me.
"First the alien ... then the Jew.
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
none before stood so alone as I.
The Hangman then strapped me...with no voice there
to cry "Stay!" ... for me in the empty square.
THE BOTTOM LINE: "...I did no more than you let me do."
So please People ask yourself how--HOW EXACTLY OPENING UP MARRIAGE WILL DESTROY MARRIAGE--HOW OPENING UP MARRIAGE TO SAME SEX COUPLES WILL DO WHAT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COULD NOT--WHAT ADULTERY COULD NOT AND WHAT DIVORCE COULD NOT DO.
In addition, people please remember that the words of the Angel on the birth of Jesus--'Fear Not!' Fear Not. Those who are trying to scare you that same sex marriage will hurt you--ask your self how-How-HOW--If you cannot answer--IF you cannot answer does that not prove that "There is nothing to fear, but fear, itself', Just like President Franklin D. Roosevelt said.
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