Meyerson’s McCain’s America

This morning Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post tries to blunt Republican campaigns impaending against Obama by penning “McCain’s America” a very weak piece that regurgitates all of the Code Pink talking points and contains little substance – and begins and ends with his personal rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan, that somehow proves a point that went right over my head. What two 19th century English songwriters have to do with 21st Century American politics, I’ll never understand. but I suppose meyerson wasn’t talking to me anyway;

 In more recent elections, Republicans have depicted Democratic presidential candidates as un-American cultural elitists heading up a dangerously diverse party.

This year, we can expect to see almost nothing but these kinds of assaults as the campaign progresses. The Republican attack against Obama all but ignores the issue differences between the candidates to go after what is presumably his inadequately American identity. He is, writes one leading conservative columnist, “out of touch with everyday America.” His reluctance to wear a flag pin, writes another, shows that he “has declared himself superior to an almost universal form of popular patriotism.”

There are good reasons Republicans are focusing on identity rather than issues this year: In poll after poll, there’s not a single major issue on which the public agrees with them or their presumptive nominee. Not Iraq, certainly. Not the economy. Should the election turn on the question of “What are you going to do for America?” rather than “Are you a real American?” Republicans are doomed. They offer no solutions for the stagnation (or decline) of American living standards, or for the weakening of America’s economic power. They offer no resolution to America’s war of choice in Iraq. Their party leader, the incumbent president, let a great American city drown.

No, Hal, a good reason that Republicans should focus on “identity politics” is because that’s all Obama has to run on. It’s the basis of his entire campaign – like recent Democrat candidates, he feels he deserves the presidency, so he’s just hoping we vote for him because he cuts a dapper image on the stage. Other than some vacuous platitudes, what else does he have? Hillary’s wins in recent non-urban areas reflects Obama’s vulnerability among real Americans who want real answers to real questions. You know – the voters.

Category: Media, Politics, Society