All Hung Up

Hanging American presidents in effigy has been a time honored tradition for decades, if not centuries. George W. Bush probably holds the record for most executions in effigy, but maybe LBJ could give him a run for his money considering the volume of Viet Nam protests. Certainly nobody ever got too worked up about it. Usually, if it was domestic and particularly threatening, the Secret Service would make a perfunctory house call to make sure people understood that this could be seen as a threat and they needed to tread carefully.

But the candidacy of Barrack Obama has put this practice in an uncomfortable spotlight. A fellow from West Hollywood put up a Halloween display that featured Sarah Palin hanging from a noose. It made the wire services and a few people complained. Notably, the guy who was quoted in the story as saying he thought is was in bad taste, refused to give his last name, while the guy who put the display up gave first, middle and last. The display stayed up for a few days, with the owner defiantly claiming free speech rights. But on the third day, a not-so-funny thing happened. Some college students in Kentucky hung an effigy of Barrack Obama from a tree. Suddenly, this was serious. The president of the University declared that the perpetrators would be caught and prosecuted, and then made good on it. Two twenty year olds were arrested for disorderly conduct and burglary (they apparently lifted the mannequin from a frat house) and bond was set at $7,600 for each of them. I’ve heard of lower bail for manslaughter charges. This was essentially a prank. Of course there were no arrests in West Hollywood.

What will be interesting to see is what will happen after the election. After the euphoria of having elected Obama wears off, the rest of the world will go back to despising the United States. Barrack Obama, much to the consternation of his supporters, will become the face of American hegemony. And the third world doesn’t relate to the racist lynchings that took place in the American south. So they will very likely hang Obama when they rally in Tehran or Islamabad. I just wonder how the American left will react and how far they’ll go to try and straighten out these folks. I can’t see them ignoring it.