According to Minnesota congresswoman, Michele Bachmann, you may be if your views run contrary to hers. And far from the staunch conservatism and Christian faith which she claims, these kinds of remarks are actually a form of New Age idolatry which betrays both of those ideologies. Rather than a disciplined approach informed by a specific intellectual or spiritual tradition which serious conservatives both political and theological invoke, the congresswoman spews fear and hate based on nothing more than her own intuition.
On MSNBC’s “Hardball”, Bachman shared her concerns that Barack Obama harbors anti-American views. Bachmann however, could not define what that even means despite host, Chris Matthews, giving her every chance. Instead she suggested that the views of all Americans be investigated as part of some national expose’. Can anyone say, McCarthy?
Whether your politics are conservative or not, whether they are Christian or not, you should object to this kind of narcissistic, self-righteous, hate-mongering. How is it any different than when those on the extreme left make claims about President Bush being criminal or that all those who are pro-life are woman-hating medievals who don’t understand the “real message” of God’s love?

In fact, it is precisely because I believe that our faith need not be divorced from our politics that I am so disturbed by this. If this is how religion is used in the public square, then perhaps it should be banned. The words of those on either extreme make that claim increasingly credible every day.
Ultimately what unites all extremists in all causes is there desire to wrap themselves in the words of a tradition which they usually know very poorly in order to distract others from the fact that all they want is for everything to be their way all of the time. And Michele Bachmann is a shining example of that perverse tradition.
Perhaps there are as many anti-America Americans out there as Ms. Bachmann fears. Perhaps I am one of them. Perhaps you are too. I don’t think so, but who knows? With no honest conversation about the real meaning of patriotism, the role of dissent in that definition, etc. we can not know. And that is a conversation which all people who really love America should want to have, regardless of their personal understanding of patriotism.
In many ways, it’s the conversation which created this country and I wonder why Michele Bachman would rather cast unqualified aspersions than enter the conversation. Could that be called anti-American?