It felt appropriate, on this holiday dedicated to sunburns, alcohol poisoning, and illegal explosives, to examine the question at the heart of the presidential election — who is more American? Who is so American he bleeds like a soccer mom and excretes apple pie with every patriotic trip to the ol' water closet?
Well, let's just see. There are those who put the matter down to mere physical appearance. In this website, for instance, Barack Obama presents a slight, somewhat alien figure in African garb, while McCain is Top Gun to a Beatles soundtrack in his fighter pilot garb. Clearly one is Classic Coke, while the other is New Coke.
Others wonder whether either candidate could be considered "a full-blooded American". Obama is half-Kenyan, after all. And McCain was born in Panama. What's more American than a immigrant-makes-good tale. Then again, a good military family dynasty is pretty American as well.
McCain gets it. His first post-primary ad proclaimed him "the American president Americans have been waiting for." This is part of an overall strategy to translate Obama's post-racialism to "post-Americanism".
One of the things we'll get to deal with as the at-home audience for this election show is the idea that black Americans are somehow less American than the white majority. Or conversely, that the future of America is ultra hip, multi-racial white collar types, which is clearly only partly true.
Ultimately, once everyone gets over the hype about their chosen candidate and his marketing message, we'll see that being American is about being all of these things and more — contradictory, yet not paradoxical.
We're about the muddle in the middle. The pendulum swings right, then left, but always, inevitably, toward the center.
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