The Repubs are stoking fear and violence as that is the only thing left for them on which to campaign. Thus, we need to keep the Dems in the news and campaigning (and thus media forgetting McCain) and the people excited about them and constantly hearing liberal frames for at least a couple of more months:
Of course, the goal of the Republican Party is to win the election and that is the purpose of launching their violent rhetoric: to frame the election in such a way that defeats the Democratic candidate. The stakes however, are much greater than just who wins or loses the White House. If violent logic takes over America's political debate, voters will likely see a rapid shut down of the deliberative democracy on which our entire system of government depends.
When political debate is taken over by violent language and logic, the effect it has on the public sphere is poisonous and debilitating. Conversation itself shuts down, opening up the door for the return of a pre-modern form of politics rooted in violence rather than the free and open exchange of ideas through words.
It has been almost 50 years since this country experienced a sudden collapse in our political conversation and the sudden shift to violence that follows. The Republican effort to frame the Presidential debate with violent rhetoric has once again opened the door that leads in that direction. Americans everywhere and of all political perspectives should take note of it and reject it.
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