Primal Zeal

David Sessions holds that the real lesson of the last two weeks was “the incredible smallness of the American political imagination”:

If, let’s say, you were to believe in a society that is not structured around dubious notions of economic deserts and God-given rights, or one that does not dramatize external enemies and romanticize combat against them, or one that is committed to radical inclusion both domestically and internationally, you became painfully aware the past two weeks that you have virtually zero political representation in the United States, and little hope of ever having it. Even in the party that contains many who think of themselves as European-style secular intellectuals, there is an endless parade of cheers for murder and bestowals of glory on those whose children threw away their lives in meaningless battle. I’m sure John Kerry and Joe Biden think of themselves as committed secularists, but their enthusiasm for chasing infidels to the “end of the earth” shows just how primally zealous our political mainstream remains.

Goldtweet’s response to the above speech:

Update from a reader:

I agree with the point but not this example. Biden cited it as justice, avenging a grievous wound that the GOP told us over and over didn’t matter anymore. It did matter, more than I realized until it was done. This was wasn’t flag-draped war mongering preformed in costume and conceived by chicken hawks. No one can argue that our national security has not been enhanced by bin Laden’s death, and if this part of the speech glorified anything, it was Obama’s commitment to that end. Citing it as an example of “cheers for murder” or bloodlust or whatever, is offensive. The only guy making hay of this is the ex-Navy SEAL who wrote a book about it. The real outrages – saber-rattling, unwinnable wars, torture (which has stopped) and imprisonments (which haven’t) – are still stoutly celebrated and defended by the right wing in a savage perversion of patriotism.