:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Monday, November 15, 2004 ::

I share your values!

The "values" the Dems lack aren't anything Christlike. They are the values of authoritarianism, militarism, and bare knuckled social discipline. But you aren't quite supposed to say that out loud....

"Values" -- especially "conservative" ones -- are a shorthand for tribal identity, the willingness to police the group and punish those who don't pay the proper respect to its mores. Defending the tribe can be a pretty morally ambiguous enterprise. As action movies teach us, a willingness to cut moral corners is evidence of true committment to the cause. Hence the suspicion of a "liberal" party committed to universalistic and not just tribal values (global test, anyone?).

What's infuriating is that right now the morally superior path is also the more effective way to defend American interests. It's patently obvious that Abu Ghraib harmed American security, that the lies behind the Iraq invasion did as well. It's also obvious that Americans have benefited from alliances over the last century, not been harmed by them. But in this election signalling tribalism, being "one of us" and not a suspiciously foreign-influenced intellectual type, was apparently more important than thinking about security.

:: Jim Nichols 11/15/2004 10:03:00 PM [+] ::
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