"Real" Americans

[jim]

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

--Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson was from Virginia - which is leaning Obama now. Not "Real America".

So there you go, that explains that.

[JCShutout]

i also hate the fact that if you \question or criticize america you are seen as unpatriotic, etc....maybe some people want to see the country do better than it is

Fun solution: when Obama is president and you hear someone ranting about him and democratic congress, ask that person why they hate america so much.

[GatewaySnayke]

I just said this in the McPalin thread, but there are certain aspects of socialism that I like. I don't mind my taxes going to pay so that people who 78-years-old don't have to work 40 hour days. I would be perfectly fine with my taxes insuring the health of the nine million kids who don't have insurance. I don't like how McPalin talk about "the redistribution of wealth." Too many are too dumb to realize that no candidate is going to going to take Joe Millionaire's money and give it some poor person.

What I'll never understand is health care versus the Iraq War. How some people can be comfortable that their money has gone into a senseless war when for a fraction of that every single American could be provided with basic coverage I'll never understand.

[G. Keenan]

What I'll never understand is health care versus the Iraq War. How some people can be comfortable that their money has gone into a senseless war when for a fraction of that every single American could be provided with basic coverage I'll never understand.

It's easy to support the bombing of poor, brown-skinned people on the other side of the world. The US has done it many times. It's even easier when you are a relatively uninformed, easily scared, jingoistic person.

[Hungary Jack]

What I'll never understand is health care versus the Iraq War. How some people can be comfortable that their money has gone into a senseless war when for a fraction of that every single American could be provided with basic coverage I'll never understand.

It's easy to support the bombing of poor, brown-skinned people on the other side of the world. The US has done it many times. It's even easier when you are a relatively uninformed, easily scared, jingoistic person.

Foreign wars are a lot sexier and more fun than mundane issues such as public health. Just ask Charlie Wilson.

[G. Keenan]

What I'll never understand is health care versus the Iraq War. How some people can be comfortable that their money has gone into a senseless war when for a fraction of that every single American could be provided with basic coverage I'll never understand.

It's easy to support the bombing of poor, brown-skinned people on the other side of the world. The US has done it many times. It's even easier when you are a relatively uninformed, easily scared, jingoistic person.

Foreign wars are a lot sexier and more fun than mundane issues such as public health. Just ask Charlie Wilson.

I'm reminded of a quote by a kid my freshman year in college. One of the few conservatives on campus, he said, "I'll be honest with you guys, war excites me!"

[cards2468]

I suppose "fake" american could be somebody that claims to be a natural-born american, but actually was born overseas to a non-american and a mother who has not been an american long enough for their child qualify as a natural-born american

[Hungary Jack]

Those who would argue that there is such a thing as a "real" American in distinctive, if not exclusionary, socioeconomic and cultural terms contradict themselves because America's most distinguishing characteristic is its ability to afford room for all wavelengths of the socioeconomic and cultural spectrum.

[G. Keenan]

Those who would argue that there is such a thing as a "real" American in distinctive, if not exclusionary, socioeconomic and cultural terms contradict themselves because America's most distinguishing characteristic is its ability to afford room for all wavelengths of the socioeconomic and cultural spectrum.

I would argue that there is no such thing as a real America. This is a nation of immigrants from all over the world who have been organized into a coherent political entity for a relatively short period of time. The reason all of these disparate peoples can get along with each other is that they all subscribe to the same ideology, this American Dream and its corollary of number-oneness. We are all living out the same collective fantasy that, in massively conspicuous ways, bares no resemblance to the economic and social realities of this country. America exists in people's imaginations and it is this mental territory that is bitterly fought over. There are huge swaths of our population that have fundamentally different ideas about the nature of our civil society. What keeps these two radically different forces together are two sacred beliefs, the virtues of capitalism and militarism. Beyond those America is a nation of ridiculous contradictions. What is "real" and what isn't just depends on an individual's particular fantasy -- a perpetual daydream that makes ideology feel like brick and mortar.

[Hungary Jack]

Those who would argue that there is such a thing as a "real" American in distinctive, if not exclusionary, socioeconomic and cultural terms contradict themselves because America's most distinguishing characteristic is its ability to afford room for all wavelengths of the socioeconomic and cultural spectrum.

I would argue that there is no such thing as a real America. This is a nation of immigrants from all over the world who have been organized into a coherent political entity for a relatively short period of time. The reason all of these disparate peoples can get along with each other is that they all subscribe to the same ideology, this American Dream and its corollary of number-oneness. We are all living out the same collective fantasy that, in massively conspicuous ways, bares no resemblance to the economic and social realities of this country. America exists in people's imaginations and it is this mental territory that is bitterly fought over. There are huge swaths of our population that have fundamentally different ideas about the nature of our civil society. What keeps these two radically different forces together are two sacred beliefs, the virtues of capitalism and militarism. Beyond those America is a nation of ridiculous contradictions. What is "real" and what isn't just depends on an individual's particular fantasy -- a perpetual daydream that makes ideology feel like brick and mortar.

Very. Well. Put.

And the Republicans are making themselves look like complete fools by putting such restrictive cultural and socioeconomic boundaries around this concept. But I guess that's politics, and I attribute this colossal blunder to the evangelical culture-war obsessed wing of the party. The problem is that they are boxing themselves into a shrinking (though very active) part of the electorate. And their criticisms and fear-mongering characterizations of the other side (ie "socialists") fall flat in the face of recent Republican Congressional policy. I'm far from being a card-carrying Democrat, but I just think that most Republican talking heads right now look like complete morons submerged in a deepening state of denial.