But the whole idea of an “FUGB Day” is just too perfect. Only it shouldn’t be one day. It should be an entire year!!!

You have asked Americans to celebrate Loyalty Day today. I think this is a good thing. I decided to celebrate it by reflecting on what loyalty might mean for Americans, so here goes:

Are heads of American corporations being loyal by taking salaries of hundreds of millions of dollars?
Is the Haliburton Corporation being loyal for troughing it up in Iraq, taking billions of dollars and doing a really poor job?
Is Donald Rusmfeld a loyal American when he doesn’t take it upon himself to see to it that American soldiers have sufficient body armor, or the right kind of transportation, while they nobly strive to do the job you sent them to Iraq to do?
Is Dick Cheney a loyal American when he refuses to be open and above board about the kind of energy policy he and Ken Lay cooked up, in secrecy?
Are the people who cooked up the preposterous scheme of going around the FISA law, Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General of the United States included, loyal Americans?
Are the journalists and media people, the so-called Fourth Estate, who have become shameless sycophants, loyal Americans?
Is Robert Novak, having openly outed a CIA agent, a loyal American?
Are the people, several in number I presume, who succeeded in completely wrecking FEMA in less than five years loyal Americans?
Is any “public servant”, sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, who fails to do so, whether by ignorance, stupidity, or a combination thereof, is any such person a loyal American?
When you, sir, having publicly admitted that you deliberately ignored the law, are you being a loyal American?

I could go on, sir, but as I understand it, you are a very busy man. There’s no need for a personal response on your part to my relections on the Meaning of Loyalty for Americans, but maybe you could do a little reflection on your part tonight, before you go to bed. Maybe you could get down on your knees, with your hands folded, eyes closed and ask the Almighty to speak to you about what it means to be a loyal American. You wouldn’t have to make a speech about it or be Born Again, as it were, you could just, day by day, start acting like your spiritual life had had a positive transformation. You wouldn’t have to admit that you had been wrong about anything. No sir, you could just, by your actions, follow a more productive path. Maybe, for instance, you could choose to recognize that working class stiffs like myself are Loyal Americans too, that we deserve a place at the table just as much as the Lee Raymonds of the world. That way you could not have that nagging fear at the back of your mind about who’s loyal and what it means. And hey, maybe your place in history would start looking a little more appealing.

Have a good Loyalty Day, sir, and thanks for reminding us to celebrate.

In 1971, John Gardner wrote a book called “Grendel,” which was his version of Beowolf, from the monster’s point of view.

In one important moment, Grendel talks with a dragon about his place in the world:

The dragon tipped up his great tusked head, stretched his neck, sighed fire. “Ah, Grendel!” he said. He seemed that instant almost to rise to pity. “You improve them, my boy! Can’t you see that yourself? You stimulate them! You make them think and scheme. You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes them what they are for as long as they last. You are, so to speak, the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves. The exile, captivity, death they shrink from – the blunt facts of their mortality, their abandonment – that’s what you make them recognize, embrace! You are mankind, or man’s condition: inseparable as the mountain-climber and the mountain. If you withdraw, you’ll instantly be replaced. Brute existents, you know, are a dime a dozen.

His point… that people tend to define themselves not by what they are, but by what they are not. Rovian tactics are to maximize this concept. This is how wedge politics work.

The problem with Democrats is that they have no effective strategy for overcoming a wedge issue other than to point them out, “That’s a wedge issue!”

For some reason, Democrats don’t seem to realize that a large number of people in America don’t mind politics of division. A large number of people don’t see anything wrong with that.

Take this exchange right after the 2004 election:

PATRICK BUCHANAN: All right, well, I want to come back to that in a minute.

But right now, Lawrence Kudlow, now, E.J. Dionne is a very bright man. And he’s a good columnist. He was an outstanding political analyst. But here he is “The Washington Post” on Tuesday‘s results.

He says—quote—”Let’s be honest. We are aghast at the success of a campaign based on viscous personal attacks, the exploitation of strong religious feelings, and an effort to create the appearance of strong leadership that would do Hollywood proud. And we are disgusted that an effort consciously designed to divide the country did exactly that and won.”

Now, Lawrence Kudlow, I thought a campaign‘s purpose was to divide the country into Republicans and Democrats and get more than the other fellow. You may have debated at Oxford. I have. But, at the end of the debate, you divide the house. Part of it walks out to vote for one side and the other stays in the room to vote for the other side.

It seems as though the Democrats are just completely outraged and exasperated that the president on a personal level ran a tough campaign and simply won by a going-away margin.

LAWRENCE KUDLOW: Well, Pat, I agree with you. I think E.J. Dionne, it’s a very uncharacteristic and unseemly rant on his part. Politics is about divisions. It’s about a clash of ideas. It‘s about a conflict of thought.

And that’s what makes democracy so great is, we can settle this peacefully. I rather liked what Mayor Brown said before, because I think the Kerry Democrats in this campaign deserted many long-standing Democratic positions, particular with respect to cultural values or moral values.

What happened here is, John Kerry and John Edwards surrendered their party to Whoopi Goldberg, to Michael Moore, to George Soros and people of the far left. And Americans are not stupid. They saw it and they didn’t want any part of it.

Buchanan makes the assertion that “a campaign’s purpose was to divide the country.” But liberal s tend to believe that a divided country is merely a consequence of an election. The purpose of the campaign is to attract people to a set of values and ideas.

Kudlow responds by reinforcing the “we’re not Hollywood elites” meme, right on target.

Democrats don’t have to start loving wedge issues, but the debate over wedge issues as a tactic is a loser.