Blood & Irony

It's crawled all the way out of the wood-work now. If your "blood" isn't completely "American," get your bags packed for that train trip East. (Granted, here in America they'll probably set up the death camps for those of lesser blood in the open spaces of the West, but we think you know what we mean.) Bottle-blond Kathleen Parker ('Fraid you don't look "Nordic" enough, Kath?) gets a quote from a West Virginian, & proceeds not to disagree w/ it, or tear it to shreds, even, but to go right along.

"A full-blooded American." That's how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren't racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with "someone who is a full-blooded American as president." Whether Fry was referring to McCain's military service or Obama's Kenyan father isn't clear, but he may have hit upon something essential in this presidential race.

Something essentially ridiculous, that is. "Oh, no, I'm not a racist. Just interested in people's blood." Let's just hear how military service makes one a "full-blooded American" as opposed to having a Kenyan father makes one not "full-blooded." Huh? We're waiting. Really, what is this? What if Sen. Obama's father were, oh, Canadian, and his name was something Scottish? Think the same dubious "issue" would be raised?

It's about blood equity, heritage and commitment to hard-won American values. And roots.

"Blood equity?" What the eff is that? "Heritage?" Need we remind anyone that the only "full-blooded" Americans are those whose ancestors were here before that Columbus fellow showed up? Are we about to get another, newer, apartheid system here, based on how long ago one's ancestors showed up to keep slaves & murder the indigenes?

But there's a different sense of America among those who trace their bloodlines back through generations of sacrifice.

Yes, it's the old "some of us are real Americans, but if you live w/in 50 miles of the Atlantic or Pacific coasts you ain't one." And no one since the 19th century has made any sacrifice to get here, have they?

But so-called ordinary Americans aren't so easily manipulated and they don't need interpreters. They can spot a poser a mile off and they have a hound's nose for snootiness. They've got no truck with people who condescend nor tolerance for that down-the-nose glance from people who don't know the things they know.

Just what things do they know? Isn't West Virginia the very bottom of the heap in education, & the leader in pollution?

What they know is that their forefathers fought and died for an America that has worked pretty well for more than 200 years. What they sense is that their heritage is being swept under the carpet while multiculturalism becomes the new national narrative. And they fear what else might get lost in the remodeling of America.

Funny, there just isn't anything in the Constitution that says the United Snakes is a specific, Euro-centric culture. And if America is such a great fucking idea, & the world continues to beat a path to our door, why are these clowns so worried that "multi-culturalism" will suddenly destroy everything? Isn't America a wonderful idea that transcends race, color & creed? Apparently not. Only those who work at their faith need apply, per Kathleen.

That God, for instance, isn't something that comes and goes out of fashion. That clinging to religion isn't a knee-jerk response to nativist paranoia, but is the hard work of constant faith. Likewise, clinging to guns isn't some weird obsession so that Bubba can hang Bambi's head over the mantel. To many gun owners, it's a constitutional bulwark against government tyranny. As Condi Rice has noted, it wasn't long ago in this country that blacks needed guns to protect themselves when the police would not. Some Americans do feel antipathy toward "people who aren't like them," but that antipathy isn't about racial or ethnic differences. It is not necessary to repair antipathy appropriately directed toward people who disregard the laws of the land and who dismiss the struggles that resulted in their creation. Full-blooded Americans get this. Those who hope to lead the nation better get it soon.

With threats like that, perhaps we'll all soon need guns to protect us from the Kathleen Parkers & Josh Frys of This Great Nation of Ours™. Last questions: Is it only the swarthy & furrin, due to their "blood," who "disregard the laws of the land?" And who is "dismissing" the struggles that led to the creation of the "laws of the land?" Really, who? A companion piece comes from another great ClownHall thinker, Michael Medved, who seems to believe there is a specific "American DNA." The irony of a Jewish person who so identifies w/ Protestant evangelical/fundamentalists who want to see him burn in Israel to bring on Armageddon talking about "American" DNA is just too much for us. Let us know how your test turns out, Mike. We may be interested in seizing your property after your train ride. Seattle's not that far from Wyoming, is it?