McCain-Palin accused of activating our 'Stone age brains'

Early voting started in North Carolina today and already the election atmosphere at the polls appears to be divisive and angry. John McCainJohn McCain supporters have begun to gather in opposition of Barack ObamaBarack Obama voters, tires are being slashed during rally events, and anger seems to be prevalent everywhere. One write-in candidate this year says he feels campaigns like this encourage our "Stone age brains", a tactic which seems to be working to enliven these angry crowds.

Following a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina supporters of Barack Obama headed to a nearby early voting center where they were greeted by John McCain supporters who heckled them, yelling "terrorist" and even calling out to voters themselves as "cheaters".

Many are now saying that McCain and his running mate, Sarah PalinSarah Palin, should be called out on their role in the events as well. potentially causing legal troubles for the McCain campaign. Hecklers across the street from polling stations may be considered acts of intimidation, which violates the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and if McCain and Palin are found to have lead the angry crowds through their own behaviors there's a chance they could be accussed of having played a role.

In yet another incident the media has reported tire slashing that occurred on over 30 vehicles parked outside another Obama rally in North Carolina, also thought to be related to Obama support. Although these incidents cannot be discounted and ignored, to say that they are racially biased at the onset is going too far.

What is clear, however, is the open encouragement that the McCain-Palin campaign has made toward pitting Obama against voters who are susceptible to accusations of being "un-American" and being a terrorist. These individuals often vote out of pure emotion, and do not pay as close attention to the details of the race as their peers.

In addition, as the stakes get higher, and the race gets closer, McCain supporters appear to be on the verge of panic, as if an Obama win would be the end of the universe as we know it. I've lived through eight years of an "unwanted executive" so I know what it feels like to have someone walk into the office I would have preferred went to someone else. But I wasn't running panic-stricken through the streets yelling terrorist!

And adding fuel to the fire are Congressional Representatives like Michele BachmannMichele Bachmann (R-MN) who essentially called for the investigation of all Congressional men and woman on the basis of whether or not they were "un-American". She stated these thoughts and similar nonsense on public television during an interview on Hardball.

Bachmann's comments spurred on an opposition candidate in her election this year. Aubrey Immelman, 52, is a psychology professor at St. John's University in Collegeville, MN, who has revived his campaign as a write-in voter in an attempt to try to bring down Bachmann's candidacy. In response to Bachmann's Hardball interview Immelman notes, "I'm a proud, patriotic American. And I cannot tolerate this festering brand of neo-McCarthyism Michele Bachmann is pushing."

The article continues with the following excerpt.

As a professor who teaches evolutionary psychology, Immelman said Republican campaign tactics this fall have played on primal fears and xenophobic traits that developed in humans during the Stone Age. Both Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have tried to make voters fear Obama as an outsider, an other, not one of us. In the Stone Age, the only answer for that kind of thing was a club. Now, perhaps, it's a contribution to the opponent.

"We have a Stone Age brain," Immelman says. "When you say the kind of things Michele Bachmann has been saying, you activate the Stone Age brain, and people react in fear. You don't have to be 'bombed back into the Stone Age.' You can be scared back into the Stone Age, too."

These behaviors have many in an uproar, and insisting that the McCain-Palin ticket is to blame. A TPM website article states:

John McCain and Sarah Palin did not tell their supporters to slash the tires of Obama supporters or to heckle voters at a polling place. In view of their continued insistence on the use of fear and hate to manipulate voters, however, and in view of the similar types of hate-based behavior we have seen at McCain/Palin rallies across the United States, I would argue that McCain, Palin, and the GOP are as responsible for these acts as the perpetrators themselves. McCain and Palin need to be held accountable for the lynch-mob mentality they have knowingly cultivated among their supporters with their own divisive rhetoric.

The extent of the McCain-Palin responsibility for any of the incidences remains uncertain, and is likely never to be known for certain. What is certain, however, is that angry near-violent voters are beginning to swarm around the election and, if these recent events are any indication, this is only the beginning of their attempts to "express" their views on the issue.

The tenor of this campaign is, quite frankly, rather scary. It harkens back to days I've only read about, but know were some of the darkest of our history. Back to the days when bullets and war were the only answer to our political divisions, a day our Founding Fathers fought hard to avoid for our future benefit.

It also makes me begin to wonder if AristotleAristotle wasn't right all along to question the merits of a pure democracy. The idea that common individuals can, in a meaningful way, truly understand the ramifications of national decisions to the extent that they could make the best decisions for a common, collective good seems to me to be a fair question this election year.