Of Cowboys And Holy Rollers

The President's strength is not finesse, I must admit.

He has encouraged a "Cowboy America" viewpoint that is off-putting not only to many Europeans, but also many liberals within our country.

Yet to believe that all of America is made in Bush's image, or vice versa, is to indulge in an elementary error. The nature of America is not determined by what the President says. Rather, the President's statements are a part of the collection of elements that make up America. Likewise, comments predicated on the "Jesusland" preconception popular among leftist detractors are simplistic, at best. Most of the intelligentsia in this country is not fundamentalist, and it would be utterly improper to say that America as a whole is fundamentalist. It is fair only to say that fundamentalists constitute a large part of some regions of America.

So why would anyone typify America as grossly out of step with the rest of the world? I would suggest that it is because they fail to apprehend or accept the sheer diversity of American opinion across the board. Freedom of speech is alive and well in America, and sometimes one side seems to dominate, and sometimes another. The pendulum does swing, and if American conservatives seem to be on the ascendancy -- as we are -- then that is only one element in a vast panoply of opinion that strives mightily against us. To believe otherwise is to buy into hyperbole, and no one is well served when the truth falls victim accordingly.