Legal Commentary

You're Either a Republican Or You're Anti-American

By TChris

Rep. Michele Bachmann, furthering the McCain campaign's attack on Barack Obama's patriotism, told Chris Matthews on Friday that she is "concerned that [Obama] may have anti-American views." Matthews asked Bachmann if Obama stood alone among elected representatives who harbor an anti-American agenda.

"What I would say - what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an exposé like that."

What a great idea. Some intrepid reporter should be going door to door in the congressional office buildings with a survey. "How do you feel about America? For it or against?" Maybe elected representatives could be asked to sign a loyalty oath. Michael Tomasky explains why the reporter's first visit should be to Bachman's office: [more ...]

The call for an investigation into the beliefs of every federal lawmaker, and an exposé of those found wanting in their patriotism, certainly takes us into deeply creepy territory. I would not call Bachmann herself a fascist. Odd as it sounds, to do so would be to grant her far too much credit. For one to embrace an -ism, even a repugnant one, one needs to have read a certain amount of history and political philosophy. Bachmann is just an idiot. She wouldn't know Edmund Burke from Billie Burke (she played the good witch in the Wizard of Oz), and she obviously has no idea that, in her rejection of the two bedrock American principles of separation of church and state and freedom of thought, she is the one who is as anti-American as they come.

Colin Powell:

“This business of, for example, a congressman (sic) from Minnesota who’s going around saying, ‘Let’s examine all congressmen to see who’s pro-America and who’s not pro-America. We have got to stop this kind of nonsense and pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and our diversity,” he said.

Perhaps concerned by the fundraising boost her opponent received in reaction to her remarks, Bachmann has retreated a bit.

Bachmann appeared on a WCCO-TV show on Sunday to say she isn't saying that Obama's views are anti-American. She says, "That was a misreading of what I said."

By anti-American, Bachmann meant to single out policies that include "tax increases, socialized medicine and climate change taxes." Of course, however they are labeled (or mislabeled in the case of "socialized medicine"), if Obama's policies win popular support and are enacted into law by democratically elected representatives, those policies will be American by definition. What is anti-American is the suggestion that the only people who love America are those who support the Republican political agenda.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 19, 2008 (boomark / email).