Patriots of the Authoritarian Wing

I had unfortunately allowed myself the brief fantasy that race wouldn't matter in this election. No,... rather that race would understandably matter for many African Americans watching the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency (similarly with Clinton and gender) and, on the other hand, those remaining racists who have an aversion to a particular color and "culture" not like them. Even if I and many others think that Obama's speech yesterday was as good as a speech on race can be in the American political climate, ideological partisans nonetheless could apparently see nothing of merit in it. That's an extraordinary blindness.

But it's precisely that ideologically-driven, religiously fervent blindness that will increase volume in the general election. The Republicans are licking their lips in anticipation of accusing yet another decent person of a lack of the same level of patriotism they have apparently defined for everyone else, recognizable by its superficial symbols and maudlin expressions. The patriots of the authoritarian wing are incapable of nuanced and intelligent discussions of patriotism informed by histories that aren't their own. Their world is apparently one in which no one dissents, no one holds views other than their own, and no one can truck any difference. The mass media hivemind is equally incapable of such discussions. Combine these two elements and you have the core of the coming Republican strategy, as well as the further debasement of the public political discourse. Ultimately, that's also the antithesis of patriotism.

Now, with the emergence of the notorious video portraying Rev. Jeremiah Wright damning the country, criticizing Israel, faulting U.S. policy for the attacks of Sept. 11 and generally lashing out against white America, GOP strategists believe they’ve finally found an antidote to Obamamania.

In their view, the inflammatory sermons by Obama’s pastor offer the party a pathway to victory if Obama emerges as the Democratic nominee. Not only will the video clips enable some elements of the party to define him as unpatriotic, they will also serve as a powerful motivating force for the conservative base.