I was reading the Post online today and noticed E.J. Dionne make a truly great point about right wing politicians, Sarah Palin in particular, always labeling certain parts of America as the "real" America. Dionne, made the basic point, but either was either afraid or unwilling, to call this what it is: societal warfare. It is but another brush stroke on the canvas of the McCain campaign attempting to paint Obama and others like him as not only, un-American, but anti-American. To quote Governor Palin, who believes "that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.” Palin makes the implicit implication that those who don't live in those small towns she is referring to, who just so happen to be, black, latino, non-christian, gay, etc. are not "real" Americans. She is pitting those people against outsiders as a tactic of instilling fear into voters who are afraid that their lifestyle will be fundamentally changed for the worse. All of those people she is excluding go to war for the country, pay taxes to the country, vote, participate politically, etc., but I guess because they're not white and Christian they aren't really "for" America. Pfh.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The "Real" America
I was reading the Post online today and noticed E.J. Dionne make a truly great point about right wing politicians, Sarah Palin in particular, always labeling certain parts of America as the "real" America. Dionne, made the basic point, but either was either afraid or unwilling, to call this what it is: societal warfare. It is but another brush stroke on the canvas of the McCain campaign attempting to paint Obama and others like him as not only, un-American, but anti-American. To quote Governor Palin, who believes "that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.” Palin makes the implicit implication that those who don't live in those small towns she is referring to, who just so happen to be, black, latino, non-christian, gay, etc. are not "real" Americans. She is pitting those people against outsiders as a tactic of instilling fear into voters who are afraid that their lifestyle will be fundamentally changed for the worse. All of those people she is excluding go to war for the country, pay taxes to the country, vote, participate politically, etc., but I guess because they're not white and Christian they aren't really "for" America. Pfh.
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