Food Stamps & Fried Chicken

The now infamous "food stamp" broadside originates from right here - western San Bernardino County. Located some forty miles due west of Los Angeles, the growing communities of Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, and Chino Hills are now the focal point of national attention over the overtly racist political depiction of Senator Obama inside a food stamp bill decorated with ribs, chicken, kool-aid, and watermelon.

The sad part of this episode is that the area is truly a melting pot of various ethnic groups and economic classes. The perpetrators of the guilty hit piece are the usually quiet and dignified Chaffey Community Republican Women. The group of leading civic women (and by association, elected Republican men) are now being seen as an insular, out of touch, and perhaps racist group. The action of a few of their members who put together the newsletter where the offending Obama depiction was found, casts aspersion on the rest of the area's population.

In so much as something like this has not happened before, one must go outside the women's group to find the real source of such hateful politics. And that is not hard to trace. The campaigns of Senator McCain and Governor Palin over the last three weeks have gone over the line in their portrayal of their Democratic rival.

It is one thing to point out inconsistent statements, perceived lack of experience, and a "liberal" voting record. Unfortunately, it is entirely not right to paint your opponent as "palling around with terrorists", "not sharing American values", and using other coded messages to stir up fear and anxiety among many voters.

Once the national campaign gets sidetracked with such negativity, it would not be hard to imagine local grassroots followers picking up the theme and putting their own take on the message. We would have to assume that the Chaffey women (and most likely other groups throughout the nation) got caught up in the anti-Obama hysteria as they put out their offensive material.

Much has been written about the growing anger being shown at McCain/Palin rallies. The Chaffey incident is a direct response to all of this. With only a bit more than two weeks left in the hard fought campaign, one wonders that if McCain did a 180% about face and called off all the negativity, whether it would be too late as the proverbial cat has already been let loose from its box.