A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I signed up for "e-mail notifications" from John McCain's political campaign. Most of the stuff that comes from them nowadays gets deleted immediately nowadays, but I took a look at the most recent one because it was entitled "Country First".
That's very noble of him, I thought. After a long and hard-fought political campaign, the old warrior is rising above partisanship, calling on his supporters to support the United States of America, working together with Americans of all creeds and colors to overcome the nation's difficulties and make life better for all her citizens, rather than pursuing petty and divisive party agendas. Country First! How patriotic! How uplifting, how restoring of one's faith in the American Experiment!
I opened the e'mail. Here's a key sample of what's inside:
Today, I'm asking you as a friend and supporter to renew your commitment to our common goals by becoming a Charter Member of Country First with an online contribution.
Country First will allow us to strengthen our Party, better define our Republican ideals and message, recruit and back strong, dedicated candidates and continue our efforts to bring real reform to government by always putting our country and the noble ideals she stands for first.
Together, we can make government more responsive to today's problems and more answerable to the people. That's why I hope you will become a Charter Member of Country First and support our cause by following this link to make a generous contribution of any amount today.
Boldface print is in the original. Italics represent hyperlinks in the original.
Notice anything missing?
Strengthen our Party. Defining our Republican ideals and message. And repeated shills for money, money, money.
Where's the concept of "Country First"? I've turned that message upside down and inside out and shaken it up and down, and not even one small piece of "Country First" fell out. Not one iota of disinterested patriotism. There's not even one single reference to the welfare of the country as a whole.
Others have noticed this, too, including Marlene Phillips at Huffington Post and DK diarist SantaFeMarie.
The Republicans' fetish about phrases like "country first" has two possible explanations.
One is pure cynicism: for Republicans, "Country First" is nothing but a marketer's slogan that means no more than the tattered, super-sized American flags that bedeck used-car dealers' lots. They don't really believe in putting "country first" any more than a sleazy used car salesman really believes that that wheezing, sideways-wobbling clunker, whose transmission he just filled with sawdust to muffle its death-rattles, was "only driven to church by a little old lady on Sundays" and will be a "good reliable family car for years to come, yah, you betcha." It's just hoo-hah to bamboozle the rubes into handing over their money and votes.
The second is less cynical, perhaps, but more sinister: that Republicans really think that "Country" and "Party" are the same thing. That people outside their own political faction -- the "other", however other is defined -- are not part of the "country". Certainly not "good", and perhaps not even "human". This is how totalitarian movements have justified themselves throughout history. Us vs. Them. Our Tribe vs. The Others. Or, to use an example closer to home, Sarah Palin's campaign rants about "Real America" versus the presumably Unreal America where a diverse population fails to give her the unconditional, unquestioning adoration that she thinks is her due.
John McCain's tone-deaf but unintentionally honest statement of his purposes is more revealing than he intended.