Ideals Make Us American, Not Origins
Nobody’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. But as someone of Chinese descent I have been asked plenty of times where I’m from — and when I say “Poughkeepsie,” I often get the follow-up question that’s almost a cliché now among Asian Americans: “No, where are you really from?”
It’s always disheartening to get that question, even though I’ve learned to answer it with equanimity and usually take care to make the inquisitor feel not-stupid. But it’s always clarifying, for it reveals the default picture in the minds of some of my fellow Americans about who they are, who we are, and who I am.
That’s why Mitt Romney’s birther-baiting remarks today are, in a way, welcome. Let there be no doubt: He is the candidate for people who think the name Obama must be Muslim and its bearer indelibly foreign. He is also the candidate for the greater number of people who do not initially imagine that someone with my face, my eyes, my skin could be from this country.
4:43 PM
Your guide to Gingrich’s greatest rhetorical hits over the last 33 years. Now with more Hitler/Munich analogies!
We have to add another to MoJo’s great collection. It’s from back in 87 during the Iran Contra hearings - when Oliver North was on for hours. Now this is when Reagan funded terrorists in Central America with moneys derived from helping Iran during its war with Iraq (assisted much more explicitly).
In an amazing example of pernicious verve, we have sophistry essentially revealing itself as sophistry:
One Marine Lieutenant Colonel had more courage than every Chief Executive officer of the Fortune 500 combined. People were tuning in for hours, more than they watched soaps, more than they watch situation comedies. Increased total ratings for day-time television by 10% … because they were fascinated by the drama.
And I’ve suggested strongly to the White House - The country will believe the drama in which we point a finger and say “these people want to take us down the road of European socialism, these people are the intellectual parallel to the German socialist party…”
