American Politics as Crypto-Catching

Have you been keeping track of all of the cryptos lately?

Obama is a crypto-Muslim; this may be why he seems to support (albeit lukewarmly) the crypto-Wahabist mosque (oddly enough headed by a Sufi--Sufism is like the Episcopal Church of Islam) to be constructed near Ground Zero. Obama's backers, the Democrats, are crypto-Communists, a rather mysterious alliance between atheist Marxists and extremist Islam.

Meanwhile, the Tea Partiers, Obama's sworn enemies, are crypto-racists and crypto-misogynists, conniving to turn back the clock to the era of the whiskey bottle in the desk drawer, the secretary patted on the bottom and Jim Crow (perhaps they are trying to capitalize on the popularity of Mad Men?).

This despite the fact that the Tea Partiers apparently became temporarily confused and sought the nomination of a female of Sikh-Indian descent when she ran against an Old White Dude in South Carolina (I guess we all have off days).

American politics has gotten a little too "crypto" for my tastes, lately. It's a classic example of relying on attacking people instead of policies. We needn't engage with Obama's policies or the Tea Party's positions and exposit their defects if we can simply begin by poisoning the well and revealing their secret allegiance to some popularly vilified group.

We should all be able to answer the question, "What is wrong with the other side's policies?" We cannot do this if we are content to begin and end with the question, "What sort of people are on the other side?"