The name of Joseph N. Welch is unlikely to be immediately recognisable to many Jamaicans.
He was an American lawyer who, for a brief time, was caught in the maelstrom of that country's politics and who died nearly half a century ago. But Joseph Welch should have new relevance in America today, given the worryingly dangerous tactics being employed by Republican presidential contender John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.
In her role as the campaign attack dog, Mrs Palin has taken to accusing Mr Obama of 'palling around' with terrorists for having served on the same charity board with William Ayers, a 1960s anti-war radical, who sent off bombs in the United States (US), but is now a university professor on education.
Mr McCain himself has accused Mr Obama of having "worked with terrorist William Ayers when it was convenient" and at Republican rallies speakers have sought to portray Mr Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, as Arab and Muslim. Of course, in post-September 2001 America, these are coded messages that Mr Obama, who is African-American, could himself be a terrorist, if he is not already one.
Vice-presidential contender
But, that is not the whole or most vulgar of the McCain/Palin strategy. The vice-presidential contender last week declared Mr Obama not to be a man "who sees America as you and I see America". She, and those to whom she spoke, a crowd of mostly white people, "see America as a force for good in this world" while Mr Obama "sees America ... as so imperfect that he is palling around with terrorists who would target their own country".
The subtext to that narrative is clear, it is an appeal to racism, suggesting that African-America Mr Obama is not "one of us", who, as Mrs Palin put it, "diminish the prestige of the United States presidency". But even worse is the attempt to paint Mr Obama as either Arab or Muslim, moving this issue from a narrow form of racism to a broader xenophobia, which Mr McCain's belated intervention at a rally last week did little to dispel.
The incendiary rhetoric, supposedly in questioning Mr Obama's character, moved the presidential contest, notwithstanding Mr McCain's attempted pullback from one of ideas, to a base appeal to race and xenophobic fear.
Witch-hunt hearings
Which brings us back to the relevance of the late Mr Welch, who was a lawyer for the US army during Senator Joseph McCarthy's witchhunt hearings of the 1950s.
Having been accused of seeking special treatment for an aide who was drafted into the army, McCarthy himself became subject to an inquiry into his behaviour. As was his style, he attacked a young lawyer, who worked in Mr Welch's practice, for his supposed communist connections.
Mr Welch shot back: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
That was the beginning of the unravelling of the McCarthy era of fear-mongering and character assassination in American politics. Joseph McCarthy became a caricatured figure, depicted by his frequent calls of "on a point of order" during the hearings.
McCarthyism has passed into the lexicon as a perverse and vile appeal to the basest of instincts. Others have yet to learn that lesson.
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