Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Got Pride? Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain, and U.S. Democratization

I noted yesterday, in response to Michelle Obama's renunciation of her country, that her comments aren't unusual for "contemporary radical left opinion on the country, the war, and just about anything else."

Well, here's unscientific confirmation to that effect, straight from
the horses mouth:

Either she's a liar or a sociopath:

“I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you? If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country,” Mrs. McCain said while revving up the crowd and introducing her husband.

When asked at a media availability afterward if they were responding to Michelle Obama’s comments that this election was the “first time” she was “really proud” of the U.S., Sen. McCain deferred to his wife–who reiterated her previous words.

“I just wanted to make the statement that I have and always will be proud of my country,” McCain said.

How nice.

Given that she's lived through segregation, My Lai, and Abu Grhaib, though, that's a fairly disturbing thing to say. Always? Really? No matter what it does?

Of course this is about Michelle Obama's comments and the phony outrage machine that they inspired. To wingnuts, patriotism means loving your country like a child loves her mommy -- it can do no wrong. Ever.

(Adding, it's okay to hate the half of the country that votes Democrat, because those people aren't real Americans.)

The title of this post? "Cindy McCain Proud Of Jim Crow."

Of course she's not proud of Jim Crow. Her comments suggested nothing of the sort. No, she's being attacked for simply being patriotic, in contrast to the left's campaign of unreconstructed anti-Americanism.

Cindy McCain accepts something that the America-bashing left never will: No democracy is perfect.

Not only that, of all the great Western democracies, the United States has made the most radical committment toward the guarantees of full equality under the law and the pursuit of the unimpeachable human dignity in the history of Western civilization.

Have we always lived up to our ideals? Of course not. Thomas Jefferson himself embodies the contrast of our nation's lofty ideals and our ignominious crimes of injustice.

But we have overcome.

From Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush, the march of American democratization - while not always swift - has been unrelenting.

As the radical left demonizes our heritage and those would would cherish it, minority voters are weilding more power in the presidential selection process than any time in history.

Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House, represents the triumph of progressive politics in the 21st century, but she herself is demonized by the very left-wing forces who should be her greatest natural allies.

I have repeatedly indicated that the hard-left is devoid of pragmatism and principle. The goal of the country's nihilist detractors is to tear down and obliterate the nation's system of values, a structure repeatedly indicted as irredeemably evil.

Remember the words of Lee Harris on this:

America-bashing is anti-Americanism at its most radical and totalizing. Its goal is not to advise, but to condemn; not to fix, but to destroy. It repudiates every thought of reform in any normal sense; it sees no difference between American liberals and American conservatives; it views every American action, both present and past, as an act of deliberate oppression and systemic exploitation. It is not that America went wrong here or there; it is that it is wrong root and branch. The conviction at the heart of those who engage in it is really quite simple: that America is an unmitigated evil, an irredeemable enormity.

Defenders of Michelle Obama will deny and obstruct the real message of Cindy McCain: There's no shame in celebrating America's democratic achievements and progress.

Much of campaign '08 will be waged on this very axis.

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