By Sam Sommers on October 21, 2008 in Science Of Small Talk

"Specifically, I've been thinking about how just as some fish apparently doesn't taste like fish, some Americans apparently aren't really American. Or, at least, that's been part of the implied and explicit campaign rhetoric of the past several days:

• Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior McCain adviser, recently referred to Southern Virginia as the "real Virginia," as opposed to the Northern regions of the state, which are closer to Washington, DC and increasingly populated by Democratic voters.

• Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, speaking in a TV interview in support of McCain's candidacy, stated that "I'm very concerned that [Obama] may have anti-American views." She went on to suggest that an exposé was needed to determine how many of her fellow Representatives share such anti-American sentiment.

• Another Republican Representative, Robin Hayes of North Carolina, just reversed a previous denial and admitted that last weekend he told a crowd in his home state, "liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God."

• McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, also apologized this week for her previous comments regarding her preference for campaigning in small towns and other locales that are "pro-American" and have "real Americans" as residents.

What do these politicians and operatives mean when they talk about "real Americans"? It's hard to say for sure. At the very least, in the minds of these individuals, the phrase seems to be more applicable to Republican voters than to Democratic voters. This isn't particularly surprising. To be fair, I'd imagine that a fair number of Democrats might feel that the phrase is more applicable to their fellow party members than to Republicans, even if their righteous indignation over the above comments precludes them from admitting this fact for the time being.

But what makes these Republicans' comments so concerning is that a less generous interpretation is that there's more than simple partisanship going on here. Rep. Hayes didn't just suggest that liberals are not real Americans, he also stated that those of liberal ideology hate their country and he implied that they are lazy, inept, and godless to boot. It's bad enough for Democratic voters in Virginia to find out that they aren't "real" citizens of their own Commonwealth, but it's another thing altogether to learn that they're apparently harboring treasonous sentiment as well.

Read the rest of the article here:  In Search of the "Real America" | Psychology Today Blogs