Dirty Politics or Dirty Politicians

By Dr. Aslam Abdullah, Editor-in-Chief of The Muslim Observer

The Presidential campain of 2008 has entered into its most dangerous stage. Rather than convincing the voters of their policies, the two sides are busy accusing and counter accusing each other. This shows how desperate the two campaigns are to avoid the real debate. From now on, the voters will hear little substance and more accusations.  Obama campaign was maintaining a clean record until the Republican Vice Presidential candidate denounced the Democratic nominee as a terrorist sympathizer. It was a pathetic move on the part of Sara Palin who used the logic of guilt by association to attack Obama. If her logic is extended, than Al-Qaeda can justify its nefarious claim that Americans must be inflicted harm because of the action of a few Americans.

Living in the same country where every four minutes a rape occurs, and every week over 600 people die in gun violence, or where more than 1.4 million children are sexually abused annually, does not make all Americans rapists, violent, or sexual predators. Palin’s accusations were anti-American, illogical, and nothing but pathetic.

The Obama campaign fired back by bringing up McCain’s association with an anti-communist organization that had the Republican candidate on its board from 1981 to 1986. this is happening when the country is spending billions of dollars every month on a war that should not have been fought, when average Americans are losing jobs and their money as a result of financial corruption that is widely rampant and when public officials are intervening on behalf of big businesses rather than American people.

This should stop. But it will not. Politics is what politicians want to make it. The two sides seem to have decided that they would try to knock the other down on the basis of personal accusations.

How could we expect these politicians to be honest and honorable to their promises if they come down to this low level in order to achieve their goals? How can we trust them with the safety and dignity of people.

We as American citizens would have liked the candidates to talk specifics about reviving our economy, introducing fairness in our foreign policy, revamping our education system and preventing crimes in our streets. We as Muslim Americans would have liked the candidates to talk openly about the threats hate groups are posing to our national security.

However, these dirty political tricks should not prevent community activists from getting involved in electoral process. It is important that despite all the negatives, we keep ourselves focused on exercising our right to vote. This is the only way we can hope to make a difference in the November election.

We need to ensure that we have a sustained voter registration drive and an effective mechanism to help the voters come out on the election day to make a difference.

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