Not Difficult to Explain

This "Obama's not like us" sales pitch is just another variant of birtherism, which is in turn a variant of the "Democrats-are-disloyal" meme that Republicans have been slinging for public consumption for the past 60 years. The difference between the recent past and now, however, is the fact that the economy is so much worse, and the level of public alienation from government so much greater, that such a message might hold a deeper resonance than it normally would for an increasingly desperate populace looking for simple solutions to the nation's seemingly intractable problems. Add in the fact that most people in this country don't hold a valid passport, and the "European hellhole" leitmotif becomes even more tempting for a totally unscrupulous candidate to employ against the President---and, so, here we are. Whether or not this approach ends up working this time around, some Republican was bound to play this card eventually, and I think it goes without saying that appeals to the darker and uglier angels of our nature will likely yield dark and ugly outcomes. The next ten months sure are going to be fun.

---Vitelius