Arrest Sarah Palin

Whatever happened to politicians attempting to bring out the best in all of us? How has this been replaced by the lowest form of speech, intended only to bring out the beast in us? How has the stirring mandate of John Kennedy for one to "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country", been replaced by the hateful vile that now comes from the mouth of Sarah Palin?

She is yelling "FIRE" in a crowded theatre. She talks not of truths, but makes incendiary remarks meant only to flame the crowd into a frenzy of mass hysteria and contempt for Barack Obama, for the Democratic party, for blacks. She appeals to the basest instincts in her listening audience. She does this intentionally and with forethought. For this, she should be condemned, and hauled off the stage. For this she should be arrested. and charged with breach of the peace.

"The offense known as breach of the peace embraces a great variety of conduct destroying or menacing public order and tranquility.It includes not only violent acts but acts and words likely to produce violence in others. No one would have the hardihood to suggest that the principle of freedom of speech sanctions incitement to riot... or to exhort others to physical attack upon those belonging to another sect" Cranwell v Connecticut 310 US 296,308 ( 1940).

Palin embodies the worst of the Republican 'southern strategy', referring to a method of carrying Southern states in the latter decades of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st century .The underlying theory was to exploit racism among white voters. This strategy, while not originating with Richard Nixon, is often attributed to him. But even Nixon used some subterfuge and subtlety in his approach, campaigning on a platform of states rights and "law and order". These were code words intended to warn his audience to take action against civil rights laws that would have been repugnant to their racist views

.Bob Herbert, a New York Times columnist reported in 1981 of a discussion concerning Southern politics with Lee Atwater . "You start out in 1954 by saying "nigger, nigger, nigger". By 1968 you can't say "nigger"- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff".

It is ironic that this Strategy was used in 2000 as a method to defeat John McCain's attempts to run for President.At that time, a push poll suggested to conservative Republican South Carolina primary voters that McCain had fathered an "illegitimate black child".

But nothing could possibly rise to the level of the recent Palin comments. All pretense is gone. When Palin repeatedly speaks of Obama palling around with a known domestic terrorist, she crosses a barrier that is not to be crossed.When she says that "this is not a man who sees America like we see America", she does not speak to the subconscious of her audience but their conscious fears. She would suggest, by her words, that the enemies of the state are one with Obama. Such words cannot be tolerated or ignored in a civilized society.