The purveyor of conventional wisdom strikes again! This time to tell us how worried he is that Obama doesn't display the necessary patriotism every possible opportunity.
More below the fold:
Seriously, it is no secret that the GOP's strategy this November will be to turn the presidential election into a referendum on Nationalism. If you love America, the Right and their media lackeys will tell us, you must vote McCain, no matter how much you disagree with his policies. However, feel free to vote Obama if you hate America. In fact, these attacks have already started and a number of talking points have already been assembled to "prove" Obama does not have the requisite patriotism to be Commander-in-Chief.
So one would think that a so-called "liberal" columnist like Joe "I have neither the time nor the inclination" Klein would use his visibility to shut down this argument, to say that it is fundamentally un-patriotic and unbecoming to attempt to gain office by questioning the patriotism - the desire to make America great - of a man who graduated from Columbia University and spent the next years organizing the Chicago neighborhoods devastated by closing Steel Mills for $13,000 a year, a man who spent time away from his young life and family to help out his fellow citizens. Most importantly, I would've liked to see the argument that patriotism is not the same as nationalism - and "rocking a flag don't make you a hero," in the words of Immortal Technique.
What do we get instead? In Obama and the Patriotism Problem, In Obama and the Patriotism Problem, Klein repeats all the right-wing attacks on Obama's insufficient love of country - Wright, Michelle Obama, lapel pins, National Anthem - without bothering to refute any or challenge the assumption that any of these denote an actual lack of patriotism, then proceeds to take Barack to task for failing to address a
But he never returned to the question of patriotism. He never said, "But hey, look, we're Americans. This is the greatest country on earth. We'll rise to the occasion."
Scranton residents concern over a lack of patriotism in this country. Really, Joe, not every question in every city can be answered exactly how you want it. Which do you think is more likely? Joe was so schocked that Barack only addressed the cynicism of the Bush years without paying tribute to the greatness of America that he decided he had to take it upon himself to write an article, or he was already going to write an article based on a narrative established by the right-wing media and used this little snippet to flesh out an otherwise very thin article? Your call.
He then goes on to criticize Democrats of years past of not showing sufficient patriotism. Again, no mention of how patriotism differs from Nationalism. But here's the money line, delivered at the end.
But now, to convince those who doubt him, Obama has to make the implicit explicit. He will have to show that he can be as corny as he is cool.
Play the game! Play the game! You can hear the Upholder of Conventional Wisdom scream. Jump through out hoops (which we borrow from the right-wing media.) So that's what the article is: Joe is saying that even though he knows Barack is patriotic, he wants him to jump through all the media hoops and do corny things like wear lapel pins to prove to Joe that he is capable of proving it to America. Or something like that.
Nationalism is not the same thing as patriotism, Joe. Or didn't you realize that.