At a recent rally in North Carolina, Sarah Palin made yet another gaffe at a rally, a gaffe depending on your own political point of view, I suppose. Read more from CNN:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told a fundraiser in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday night:
"We believe that the best of America is in the small towns that we get to visit, and in the wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she said.
"This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans," Palin added.
At a rally in Mesilla, New Mexico, on Friday, Biden responded to those comments in a vociferous tone.
"I hope it was just a slip on her part and she doesn't really mean it. But she said, it was reported she said, that she likes to visit, 'pro-American' parts of the country," he said to loud boos.
"It doesn't matter where you live, we all love this country, and I hope it gets through. We all love this country," he said. "We are one nation, under God, indivisible. We are all patriotic. We all love our country in every part of this nation! And I'm tired. I am tired, tired, tired, tired of the implications about patriotism."
Biden's defense of America couldn't be more spot on, and Palin's comments are the sign of an internalized belief that some parts of the country are “better” than others. My guess is that she’s really talking about red states and blue states.
Clearly, the Rightcons hold in disdain parts of our country that don’t strictly adhere to their vision of the American ideal (oh, that being authoritarian male, straight, white, rich, and Christian). How many times have you heard about that “San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi” epithet fly out of the mouths of radiocons? Apparently, and this I did not know, San Francisco is such a heathen’s Gomorrah that it deserves to be sunk into the ocean and forgotten (despite the fact that radiocon extremist Michael Savage broadcasts from there, when he’s not putting down our children with autism, that is). Or another, one of our most beloved cradles of democracy, Massachusetts, smeared because of progressive policies? Again, another hotbed of anti-American deviltry. But, at one point, weren’t the colonies were up in arms because of England’s treatment of Boston? I seem to remember that.
Our plot thickens after Republican Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann rips a page out of the Ann Coulter Book of Hypocrisy and Lies. On her recent press tour, hopping from news show to news show, Rep. Bachmann spews gibberish about how “anti-American” liberals are, and doesn’t hesitate to start naming names, of course the first ones being Barack and Michelle Obama. Yes, a sitting US Senator, who taught Constitutional law for twelve years, is an rabid anti-American zealot. That definitely fits the mold for me (or, maybe I should have inserted Obama’s middle name into that last sentence, to make the Rightcons more happy).
In this interview, Bachmann’s position is laughable. Chris Matthews’ intense grilling of her position is admirable, and all poor Bachmann can do is mindlessly repeat her unfounded, unproven assertions:
Don’t you admire her ability to just keep spouting the twaddle, whether it makes sense or not? Bachmann can question my patriotism all she wants. I’m not changed by it, and in fact, I support her right to do so. However, by suggesting that people who express views contrary to her own is inherently un-American in itself, and therein lies the hypocracy.
McCain’s faltering campaign echoes a similar theme on his swing through Virginia. Apparently not winning in the northern part of the state, McCain’s campaign now sees two Virginias, one being “real” and the other, I guess, is manufactured. Apparently, it’s not enough that Virginia broke into two pieces during the Civil War, so now we need three.
(Funny, I did live in Virginia for two years. I filed state income taxes in Virginia, my teaching certificate came from the department of education in Virginia, and my driver’s license said Virginia. None of them said, “Fake Virginia”.)
My point is that the Rightcons are so desperate at this point to get people to ignore the economy, ignore the state of the world, ignore the last eight years of Bush mis-rule that they are starting to insert wedge politics into this campaign. It’s much safer to create an “us vs. them” mentality in this country, a core principle of the Rightcons. The conquer and divide strategy is a sign of a last gasp to hold control of our country. And fortunately, for all of us, the Obama campaign, and the country, is not taking the bait. Because of that, I predict they’ll just hype up the rhetoric (and unfortunately, that’s come true).
As a Lincolnian Liberal, it brings back to mind a quote of Lincoln’s that seems appropo here. In the past-but-not-forgotten exhibit, “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln”, Lincoln gives a thought about how our country might end (of course, faced with the battle between slave and free states, and the apparent fear of our Union unraveling). He says:
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? … I answer that if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be the authors and finishers. As a nation of free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide.”
Now, in writing this, it seems like an extreme example of the end result of Rightcon thinking, that they would actually think that some areas of the country are better than others. But you wonder, after, for example, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans, and the lack of government intervention for days as people died, that some of them were thinking, “Well, that’s okay, that’s not a “Pro-America” town.” George Bush’s compassion for New Orleans dripped right out of that now infamous photo of him “inspecting the damage”, from 30,000 feet.
Our Founding fathers encouraged a wide variety of opinions in the creation of our country. They themselves were of many opinions in writing the Constitution, as James Madison’s notes clearly show. It’s from the chorus of voices that the beautiful fabric of our Constitution was woven, not by “pro-Americans” or “anti-Americans”, but simply “Americans”, as we all are, liberal and conservative alike.