March 29, 2004
BE JUBILANT, MY FEET:
Americans fighting their own holy war (ALEX MASSIE, 3/27/04, The Scotsman)
[I]f there’s one essential truth about the United States these days, it is that the principal divide in the country is no longer between rich and poor, or even black and white, but between the devout and the unbelievers. Clearly, racial issues remain immensely important, but race is both an openly acknowledged problem and one that, although far from solved, is at least moving in the right direction. By contrast, the cultural war between religious and secular is only getting worse.The case before the Supreme Court is the latest skirmish in this grinding cultural war. Mel Gibson’s The Passion drove another nail through the idea that the United States could comfortably reach any kind of consensus about religion. For the first time in living memory, religious conservatives had no problem with graphic violence on the big screen, while liberal atheists disparaged the pornographic brutalism of Gibson’s vision.
Last year, foreigners chuckled as devout Christians flocked to the state courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest against the (court-ordered) removal from the building of a slab depicting the Ten Commandments.
To some extent, the argument over gay marriage is but another front in this wider, deeper cultural struggle. The religious Right (and in this case many on the religious Left, too) sees no difference between the Church’s definition of marriage and the civil, secular, definition of the institution. "Activist" judges in Massachusetts and elsewhere disagree.
If further evidence were needed that a religious revival is under way, it came this week as Congress passed legislation making it a crime to hurt or damage unborn children. To godless Europe, this is an extreme measure; to many Americans, it is commonsense.
There is another point to be made too. The notion that the United States was and is a great and divine experiment is central, indeed crucial, to the idea of American exceptionalism. The US remains a profoundly evangelical country, even if the constitution explicitly rejects the idea of a State-sponsored established religion. [...]
The idea of manifest destiny, still deeply felt today, may trouble non-Americans more than any other aspect of contemporary American culture, be it secular or religious. But it is nothing new. Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt both believed themselves to be in the business of saving other countries from themselves. There was, in that respect at least, no contradiction in their minds between the interests of the divinity and the United States.
In other words, US religious fervour is inseparable from the political mission the United States has believed itself to be engaged in ever since its founding. In that respect, the modern-day US remains a deeply old-fashioned place, burdened with the sense of obligation (and righteousness) not seen in Europe since the 19th century. The spirit of noblesse oblige lives on and America is destined to be an inspiration for the rest of humanity. Some may see this as hubris, of course, but it is an essential element of American amour propre.
One as yet unrecognized problem for Democrats is that their Atlanticism places them at odds with this Americanism. It makes their choice of presidential candidates especially disastrous.
MORE:
Socialist Cousin Insists Kerry Isn't French (NewsMax, 3/29/04)
John Kerry's French cousin insists there's nothing gallingly Gallic about the Massachusetts Democrat.Posted by Orrin Judd at March 29, 2004 2:53 PM"John Kerry is incredibly American," claimed cousin Brice Lalonde, mayor of Saint-Briac-Sur-Mer and environment minister under Socialist former president Francois Mitterrand. "He has absolutely nothing French about him."
The Associated Press reported today: "With the race for the White House turning nasty - and France-U.S. ties not quite mended from the Iraq war - Kerry's Gallic clan, when questioned, talks up his American-ness. Some are keeping a low profile, saying too much talk about France could be political arsenic."
Lalonde admitted, "I'm afraid to hurt him," but like other Frenchies has a Kerry bumper sticker pasted to his car.
A letter in this week's Economist:
SIR – Matthew Cooper suggests that it is a boring form of rebellion to drink red wine with fish, as some sort of slur on John Kerry (“Primary colour”, March 13th). That may be the case in America but certainly not in Europe where one can always choose between red or white wine with fish without embarrassment. As John Kerry once lived here, I am sure he feels no shame.
Pamela Lawrence Hotz
Zurich
_____
Does this Ms. Hotz exist, and truly believe this is a defense of the good senator, or is she a figment of Karl Rove's imagination?
Posted by: jsmith at March 29, 2004 10:07 PMThe NewsMax headline (maybe whittled down to "Socialist Cousin: "Kerry Not French") would be a great bumpersticker.
Posted by: David Cohen at March 30, 2004 9:13 AMYes, Ms Hotz exists and she isn't a figment of anyone's imagination. I wonder what figment you come from. As a bystander to this ugly spectacle, I cannot believe the petty ugliness of the so-called US Presidential campaign. Many intelligent people here and around the world are appalled with the bluffs, the charades, the meaninglessness and emptiness of your silly blatherings. They want substance, but they don't get it, they just see empty talking heads. Aren't YOU actually embarrassed? If not, you should be. There, there, perhaps a glass of red wine would help you unwind from your delusions. Have some with a plate of fish, apparently fish is good for the brain cells.
Posted by: Pamela Lawrence Hotz at April 6, 2004 1:36 PMYes, Ms Hotz exists and she isn't a figment of anyone's imagination. I wonder what figment you come from. As a bystander to this ugly spectacle, I cannot believe the petty ugliness of the so-called US Presidential campaign. Many intelligent people here and around the world are appalled with the bluffs, the charades, the meaninglessness and emptiness of your silly blatherings. They want substance, but they don't get it, they just see empty talking heads. Aren't YOU actually embarrassed? If not, you should be. There, there, perhaps a glass of red wine would help you unwind from your delusions. Have some with a plate of fish, apparently fish is good for the brain cells.
Posted by: Pamela Lawrence Hotz at April 6, 2004 1:36 PMYes, Ms Hotz exists and she isn't a figment of anyone's imagination. I wonder what figment you come from. As a bystander to this ugly spectacle, I cannot believe the petty ugliness of the so-called US Presidential campaign. Many intelligent people here and around the world are appalled with the bluffs, the charades, the meaninglessness and emptiness of your silly blatherings. They want substance, but they don't get it, they just see empty talking heads. Aren't YOU actually embarrassed? If not, you should be. There, there, perhaps a glass of red wine would help you unwind from your delusions. Have some with a plate of fish, apparently fish is good for the brain cells.
Posted by: Pamela Lawrence Hotz at April 6, 2004 1:36 PMYes, Ms Hotz exists and she isn't a figment of anyone's imagination. I wonder what figment you come from. As a bystander to this ugly spectacle, I cannot believe the petty ugliness of the so-called US Presidential campaign. Many intelligent people here and around the world are appalled with the bluffs, the charades, the meaninglessness and emptiness of your silly blatherings. They want substance, but they don't get it, they just see empty talking heads. Aren't YOU actually embarrassed? If not, you should be. There, there, perhaps a glass of red wine would help you unwind from your delusions. Have some with a plate of fish, apparently fish is good for the brain cells.
Posted by: Pamela Lawrence Hotz at April 6, 2004 1:36 PMYes, Ms Hotz exists and she isn't a figment of anyone's imagination. I wonder what figment you come from. As a bystander to this ugly spectacle, I cannot believe the petty ugliness of the so-called US Presidential campaign. Many intelligent people here and around the world are appalled with the bluffs, the charades, the meaninglessness and emptiness of your silly blatherings. They want substance, but they don't get it, they just see empty talking heads. Aren't YOU actually embarrassed? If not, you should be. There, there, perhaps a glass of red wine would help you unwind from your delusions. Have some with a plate of fish, apparently fish is good for the brain cells.
Posted by: Pamela Lawrence Hotz at April 6, 2004 1:37 PM