Divisive Politics

This post is going to tackle Keith Olbermann.
The link is via onegoodmove.org, a blog that often posts great stuff.

Keith Olbermann. He speaks with such energy and such anger. I am so glad his perspective has found a home on cable news. But often I watch and wish he'd gone further, or see obvious connections I wish he'd make. This leaves me so frustrated. With this comment he describes many of the grievances I've had with McCain. But I wish he'd point out what only John Stewart has noted: that 911 happened in New York City. New York City is the America that Osama bin Laden chose to attack, so when Sarah Palin and the rest of McCain's friends say that small town rural America is "pro-America" and by implication that the rest of America is "anti-America" they come dangerously close to aligning themselves with the enemy. Osama bin Laden is a religious fundamentalist, extremist. I do not believe for a second that he didn't pick his target carefully. He chose to attack a city in America that stands for all of the things that Islamic fundamentalists oppose: liberalism, freedom of expression, freedom of association, hedonism, feminism, multiculturalism, sexuality, intellectualism, and capitalism. New York City stands for all these things, both here in America and to the rest of the world. The World Trade Center in particular. These are all things that threaten the power of Islam and the power of Osama bin Laden to exert their tyrannical control over the lives of their followers and to regulate the personal, professional, and intellectual aspects of their lives. The only difference is that the rest of the world sees New York City as the essence and the nexus of American culture. Clearly Sarah Palin and friends see it differently.

When Sarah Palin draws a line in America between what she sees as the excess, greed, and sin of the American metropolis and the "small town", "hard working", "religious" values of Main Street and calls that the real America she is committing an incredible trespass against us. Is she suggesting that we as a country abandon the principles that allow this melting pot to exist in favor of retreating to our churches? If so this is is the politics of surrender.

What scares me about the divisive politics of McCain and Palin is not merely the divisiveness but where they draw the line. I'm from a small town and I know that liberal values can be welcome there. I know that this line is artificial. After 911 we all had New York City in our hearts. You still see banners honoring the NYC fire department flying outside fire stations in places that couldn't be more different. The kinship we feel with New York City I believe is especially strong because in many ways we are all from there. So many of our ancestors came through there looking for the peace and liberalism and freedom and opportunity she offers. But the a fundamentalism also flourishes in America. A fundamentalism that is not far from that of our enemy. This fundamentalism exists in a Christian form here but it too seeks to control our thoughts, curtail our expression, and censor our sexuality. It too fears the foreign and the unknown. It fears education. And McCain and Palin are exploiting that fundamentalism.

I hope people are smart enough to know when their fears are being exploited. I hope people remember 911 happened in New York.