Michael Gerson on Patriotic Kink: red, white and blue boxers and special marital occasions

[BurtWorm]

Link courtesy of Democracy Arsenal:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/08/AR2008050802808.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

The issue of the lapel flag pin is a good illustration. Obama's explanation for its absence--that it had become a "substitute" for "true patriotism" in the aftermath of Sept. 11--is perfectly rational. For a professor at the University of Chicago. Members of the knowledge class generally find his stand against sartorial symbolism to be subtle, even courageous. Most Americans, I'm willing to bet, will find it incomprehensible after 20 additional explanations, which are bound to be required. A president is expected to be a patriotic symbol himself, not the arbiter of patriotic symbols. He is supposed to be the face-painted superfan at every home game; to wear red, white and blue boxers on special marital occasions; to get misty-eyed during the most obscure patriotic hymns.