Mark Naison: To My Republican Friends- A Vote For Obama Is a Vote to Rescue the GOP From Bigotry

[Mark Naison is Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University.]

One of the things I've learned, through long experience, is that it can be as difficult to change a person's political affiliation as it is to change their religion. People are attached to political parties through
tradition and sentiment as well as ideology, and to try to get people to change parties is usually futile and often counterproductive.Some of my favorite former students are Republicans, and while I never attempt to hide my political views from them, I would never presume to try to change how they vote.

Except in this Presidential election.

Although I like John McCain and admire many things he has done, in choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, he has unleashed a level of bigotry and xenophobia among a sizable portion of the Republican faithful that decent members of that Party need to deal with both now and in the future.

I am not talking about a small number of individuals using the N word to abuse Black journalists, holding up monkeys as Obama effigies, or snidely whispering that Obama's name is really Osama.
Those are isolated incidents, ugly though they are, and the atmosphere of an entire campaign cannot be judged by them alone

But when thousands of people, at Palin rallies in Pennsylvania and Ohio, start chanting "vote McCain, not Hussein," then you have a glimpse of the Faustian bargain that John McCain made with the Republican Right when he chose Sarah Palin..

Here are thousands of angry people, every single one of them white, spewing hatred of Muslims during a major presidential event, while the candidate they have come to see, is doing nothing to stop them. Forget how this looks to American Muslims, or to billions of Islam's followers around the world, how does it look to anyone who is non white, non Christian, or of immigrant ancestry?

Is this the face the Republican Party wants to show the nation, or the world? Do you want an all white Party filled with angry people afraid of anyone who doesn't look like them or share their religious beliefs?

I can assure you that if John McCain chose Joe Lieberman, or Mitt Romney, or Mike Huckabee as his running mate, this behavior would not have been tolerated.

But Sarah Palin has no such scruples. She is willing to stir up the ugliest emotions, and the most hysterical fears,to advance her own political career, not only in this election, but in the future

John McCain can't control her, my Republican friends, but you can!

By voting for Barack Obama in this election, and contributing to a decisive Obama victory, you can help retire Sarah Palin, and her bigoted, mean spirited supporters, to the obscurity they deserve, and rebuild a Republican Party you can be proud of again!

For this one election, please put morals above ideology and tradition.

Your children, and their children, will be proud of you for standing up for the best of America rather than the worst.