Syndicate and Hague

On Monday’s Daily Show, the writers took aim at this idea of “Real America.”

While I could break this down intellectually - what that means, why it’s used - the whole thing is so visceral to me that I don’t really feel like doing that today.

When that guy from Wasilla talked about how New Yorkers will pass by a guy lying in the street and that 9/11 brought out the best in the country (ignoring Jason Jones’s quick note that 9/11 happened in New York), I wanted to scream.

I have been an urban-dweller for my entire adult life - St. Paul, Minneapolis, Manhattan, Brooklyn - and I am a liberal and not ashamed of it. I am also a real American. Real America isn’t confined to white people in small towns. There are millions of us - millions - living in cities in this country, millions of Americans who are not white, millions of Americans who are not conservative - socially or otherwise - millions of Americans who are immigrants or whose parents are immigrants or whose grandparents are immigrants.

This country is ours, too. We are Real Americans too.

When I stood on the roof of my apartment building and watched the World Trade Center disintegrate and obliterate the skyline; when my neighborhood was choked with ash; when I and my friends and neighbors waited for some kind of contact to know that the people we cared about were safe; when my friends and fellow New Yorkers who worked in the city walked miles in confusion and fear just trying to make it home - no one I know would have said that we as Americans, and we as the world, didn’t feel that pain together.

And then Jerry Falwell came out and blamed gay people and feminists and then for the next eight years the Republicans made 9/11 an us versus them game. “Us” being people who were conservative and “Them” being people like me - with a different ideological view of how we fix society, as well as someone who was there.

You know what, FOX news? You know what, Michele Bachmann? You know what, Sarah Palin? You don’t get to decide who Real America is. There is no “Real America.”

Just because I happen to disagree with you on what this country needs doesn’t mean you get to throw me out.

I think you’re wrong on defense, wrong on morality, wrong on taxes, and wrong on social programs. I think the policies you promote are perpetuating inequality and making it harder for us to work together as a country and respect each American’s unique experience and life. I think that you call people names so you don’t have to debate issues because your ideas don’t stand up to actual debate. I think you use catch phrases so you don’t have to explain your ideas.

But I’m not going to tell you you’re not American. Because here in these big cities, we grow good people, people with values, civic-minded people who want to create better schools and better lives for ourselves and others, but America isn’t a series of stars on a map.

Like it or not, we’re in this together, and it’s time to start acting like adults.

There are plenty of reasons that women shouldn’t get behind Sarah Palin just because she’s got two X chromosomes, including her adamantly anti-choice stance on women’s rights to make decisions for themselves. Personally, I think that Palin was chosen cynically - to potentially appeal to the radical right Christian conservatives and to disenchanted (sigh, so sick of that meme) Hillary supporters.

All that said, I’m already seeing the sexism that encountered Clinton rearing its ugly, ugly head in discussions of Palin. It’s disgusting and unnecessary and none of us should stand for it. Just as we shouldn’t stand for the misogynistic attacks on Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton or any other woman.

That’s it, that’s all I’m saying on this. Have fun this extended weekend and join me at the Liberty Parade if you’re in Minneapolis!