Paul Krugman, a decent lefty columnist for the NY Times had this to say today:

“In fact, rank-and-file Republicans continue to approve strongly of Mr. Bush’s policies — and the more un-American the policy, the more they support it.”

His article is a pretty scathing attack on “rank-and-file” Republicans, in spite of the fact he makes no reasonable attempt to define exactly who those people are. He makes a compelling case that there is overwhelming support within Republican ranks for the president and his “un-American” policies (like torture) and that Bush doesn’t deserve full credit for the ruinous state of our current politic, but that this burden should be shared by all who checked “R” in the registration box.

There are some obvious problems with Mr. Krugman’s logic. First, his opinion is bigoted in the worst way. He is passing a moral judgment on an entire group of people, a sense of collective guilt, because of his assumptions about them. Second, and perhaps more important, he is trying rather lamely to ironically use the word “un-American”, a filthy term often used by conservatives to describe those whom they consider weak-kneed liberals, on Republicans who support the president. It is a bad example of an inflammatory column and it isn’t persuasive in the least because it doesn’t advance the argument beyond the level of a bumper sticker on the back of a Prius.

Dr. Johnson had a good phrase for those who are quick to question another’s patriotism as a way of underhandedly scoring points in a public debate. “Patriotism is the last vestige of a scoundrel,” an apt quote for Mr. Krugman who in this instance is using the problematic word un-American, to pass a moral judgment on a political party as a way to feed his base of other hungry, bigoted, lefties.

I have a lot of lefty friends. The most vehement of their ranks, the most vocal, are those who still think that I am an insensitive warmonger because of my voter registration preference. This is inspite of the fact that I am against the war and that I love puppies. It is just as stupid to say that, “all Republicans are (substitute derogatory phrase here)” as saying that “all liberals are bedwetting pinkos”. Nobody wants a political process based on this crap and its high time that those of us in the middle got over our party registrations and started listening to each other.

Not to make this personal, which of course means that I am going to, but please don’t try to blame me for the fact that the Bush Presidency turned out to be awful. Its not like when I voted for the guy I thought “gee, who can I elect who’ll fuck up America.” Don’t blame me because I voted for the guy – there are bigger people to blame for our situation. You know, like Congressmen and Generals. Picking on someone because of their voter registration is shooting way low of who you should be aiming at.

As long as columnists like Mr. Krugman keep the public debate so low, that of the insult however sophisticated his may be, then there is little hope that we can reach a cultural moment of reconciliation so needed in American politics between the left, right, and center.