Matt Yglesias

Everything is Un-American

Conservatives seem to have become so accustomed to being able to define by fiat which things are manly “real American” activities and which only puny foreigners would engage in, that they’ve now gone completely ’round the bend. First we learned that real men don’t inflate the tires on their car properly, and now the RNC is mocking Barack Obama for taking his shirt off at the beach. Or maybe they think the problematic thing here is that he likes to vacation at the beach during the summer? Or something. But this all has at least the superficial appearance of excruciatingly normal behavior. What will be next — attacking Obama for shaving in the morning? Brushing his teeth?