The real American Kulterkampf

Just when I thought that Republicans could jump no more sharks and plumb no more depths... well... check out this post on Crooks & Liars.

I can't believe it. I really can't believe it. Well... I do believe it, I suppose. I just really don't want to. If you had any doubt that the Republicans weren't going to frame the War in Iraq as a Christian crusade against Islam, that they aren't concerned with lumping in millions upon millions of innocent, peaceful Middle-Easterners in the same category as the mythical stereotype of the al-Qaeda super-terrorist... that they're not concerned, ultimately, about how many innocent people die, both American and Middle Eastern lives, so that they can provoke this so-called culture clash between the East and the West that they've manufactured... here is your proof.

If you're not already familiar with the concept, I suggest you refer to Wikipedia's entry on Kulterkampf. I come from an ethnic background of Roman Catholic German and Polish heritage... while the specific reasons my ancestors departed Europe remain unstated in my family, I can check the emigration dates on my family's geneology, and I can do the math.

Granted, the original application of Kulterkampf reflected an extremist form of secularism that was targetted against a specific religion. That religion (Roman Catholicism) was viewed as an external threat to the "national integrity" of the German Empire. I dare say it isn't a stretch to substitute another extremist ideology as the driving force (say, evangelical Christianity) and target a totally different religion which can be demonized as a foreign threat to our existence as a nation (say, Islam).

If I need to point out just where this subverted, nationalistic form of uber-patriotism ultimately carried Germany, then you apparently slept through a very important history lesson in school.

If the founding fathers of this country could witness this year's RNC, they'd be bursting out of their graves in desperation to stop this. More than ever now, I fear for the future of the United States of America.