When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he said, in ways both explicit and implicit, that we could transcend what divided us -- our racial, religious, geographic, or political differences -- and unite in a common national purpose. This rubbed some people the wrong way. Some found it naïve, some even found it cynical.
But whatever else you might say about all that happy talk, even conservatives would have to admit that it appealed to our better natures. We'd all like to believe that even if it doesn't happen very often, we should aspire to find our commonalities, allow our diversity to make us a stronger country, and treat each other with respect even when we disagree. Don't we believe that?
Just something to think about, as the people who like to call themselves "the party of Lincoln" undertake as their latest cause the repeal of the 14th Amendment, so that we might deny citizenship to children born in America based on the immigration status of their parents. This happens while they argue that freedom of religion ought not extend to Muslims, race-baiting has become endemic on their favored media outlets, a recent CNN poll found that only 23 percent of Republicans believe their president was definitely born in the U.S, and the most dynamic leader in the GOP centers her appeal on the division between the people she calls "real Americans" and the rest of us.
None of these developments, taken individually, represents something new in American politics. But I can't remember when a political movement worked as hard on as many different fronts to appeal to what's worst in all of us.
And as usual, they'll probably be rewarded for it at the polls.
-- Paul Waldman