Party Express is stopping by the Boston Common to hold a public rally in support of the fear-mongering and irrational mudslinging that unfortunately has become the norm of contemporary political discourse since President Obama took office. We at the Suffolk Journal object not only to their rally but to a particular guest that has since become the rock star of right-wing extremists: Sarah Palin.

There is nothing wrong with legitimate policy disagreements with the Obama administration. There are plenty of rational, reasonable, intelligent people who have criticized government involvement in healthcare, nuclear disarmament, bailouts of Wall Street, global warming initiatives that target business, and other policies that the Democrats have pushed since taking the White House.

What is wrong, what is poisonous, and what is fundamentally dangerous for the discourse of American politics is the tone that Palin has taken. Telling the American public that government involvement in healthcare will lead to death panels that execute the elderly and developmentally disabled is disingenuous at best and a threat to society at worst. Having a PAC that puts rifle scopes on vulnerable democratic districts and refers to them as “targets” is irresponsible for any elected official, present or former. And while Palin hasn’t endorsed the birther movement or backed the claim that Obama is a secret Muslim, she certainly has done little in terms of condemning this rhetoric.

A new report by the Department of Homeland Security issued to law enforcement has documented right-wing extremist groups as the biggest domestic terror threat. When members of the House of Representatives went to vote on the Health Care Reform Bill last month, they were greeted by Tea Partiers who hurled racial and homophobic epithets at them. And more recently, members of Congress have come forward with claims that they have been victimized by vandalism and death threats.

Reactionary, inflammatory rhetoric like that of Palin and the Tea Party only goes to further encourage these actions. If Sarah Palin and her Tea Party ilk have policy beefs with the current administration, that’s fine, but what isn’t fine is the hate speech and demagoguery that Palin has used to articulate these concerns. Rhetoric such as this is irresponsible, and it only serves to reinforce the ugliness and criminality that has characterized American political culture as of late.