Jason Maoz emails:
Luke,
In an interview with Salon.com, novelist Michael Chabon ("The Yiddish Policemen’s Union," "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay") provides a textbook case of the deep alienation and historical illiteracy that has long been de rigueur for members of the literary left (and those who aspire thereto).
Asked why he’s such a fan of Barack Obama, Chabon describes the senator as "being fully conscious of both what’s great and what’s terrible about America and American history. The ills, the evils, the massacres, the injustices that have been done, and at the same time a sense of pride and faith and optimism that’s coupled with a totally clear-eyed sense of the grimness that’s there as well."
Note the litany of horrors from this ungrateful nitwit: "ills," "evils," "massacres," "injustices" — all offset not by mention of anything concrete, not by mention of the nation’s myriad positive accomplishments, of its having provided unprecedented freedom and opportunity and sustenance to billions of people at home and abroad, but by an airy, non-descriptive "sense of pride and faith and optimism" (in precisely what is far from clear, given Chabon’s apparently hellish view of the country and its history).
And then, as though he senses some Salon readers might fear he isn’t being negative enough in his assessment of this evil, forsaken land (we elected the Fearsome Dictator Bush, after all), he polishes his progressive bona fides by proclaiming — with all the arrogant certainty liberals seem capable of mustering only when they find fault with America — "the grimness that’s there as well."
Whenever, in a moment of weakness, I find myself myself wondering whether it would really be the end of the world if a Democrat were elected president — you know the arguments: Bush hasn’t governed as a true conservative anyway, he’s botched Iraq at least as badly as any Democrat would have, fat-cat Congressional Republicans need to be taught more of a lesson, etc. — I need only think of someone like Michael Chabon to snap myself out of such foolishness.
