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Go Home American Conservatism And The British Empire

JONATHAN CHAIT MARCH 1, 2011

American Conservatism And The British Empire

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

Apropos of Mike Huckabee's quasi-endorsement of the "Kenyan anti-colonialism" theory of Barack Obama, there's something I've been wondering about this. The theory holds that Barack Obama, through his father, acquired a worldview twisted by opposition to British colonialism. But the people most enamored of this theory are also highly enamored of the Tea Party, which is steeped in worship of... opposition to British colonialism!

Wouldn't this theory mean that our Founding Fathers were also twisted by opposition to British colonialism? Or maybe the idea is that we had a right to throw off the British yoke, but the Kenyans should have put up with it, because the British occupation there was so much more benign.

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15 comments

I'm not the first on the left to say it, and I won't be the last, but I have a hunch that complexion may play some part in this conundrum Also, your picture is borked

- Simon Greenwood

March 1, 2011 at 5:05pm

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What I don't fully understand about all of this is, shouldn't we always be against colonialism? Was it ever good? Does Mike Huckabee think that British Colonialism was a good thing that should have been supported? I would have thought that all freedom loving Americans would be against colonialism. Oh well.

- DocStrange

March 1, 2011 at 5:36pm

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You mean they're being logically inconsistent? Weird - they've never done that before... I have a submission for your ongoing coverage of Ohio: http://www.fox8.com/news/sns-ap-oh--ohioabortions-firstheartbeat,0,1310106.story

- tysonsahib@yahoo.com

March 1, 2011 at 6:01pm

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My dear Jonathan, Why are you looking for logic in any of this?

- MikeB.

March 1, 2011 at 6:08pm

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I mean, it's not as if Americans have been somewhat in two minds about their relationship to Britain since, oh, about 1783.

- ironyroad

March 1, 2011 at 6:38pm

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I think there is nostalgia among certain Americans for the British Empire, for a time when WASP's ruled, which they still do in many ways - economically how powerful are Anglo-American oil interests for example? In that world - well people of color, Jews, unions, uppity women, Latinos, so forth, are not pukka pukka are we. Obama definitely = oh noes. Also, there is an attraction here for British aristocracy, kings, royal weddings etc which baffles me. Britain is The most admired nation here. It is wierd, considering. I suppose, better they should be with us than agin' us. But still. Aristocracy? Well - class is important here too but we don't discuss it. And we should.

- Sophia

March 1, 2011 at 6:45pm

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PS, does it matter that Obama didn't grow up in Kenya?

- Sophia

March 1, 2011 at 7:06pm

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There, I have been waiting to write this: In pushing the bizarre Dinesh D'Souza version of BHO, the Tea Partiers are being un-American. I think that JC is being whimsical, Mike.

- liberalref

March 1, 2011 at 7:13pm

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Noooo! It's "yoke," not "yolk." C'mon, Jon. Pretty soon someone's going to start cracking jokes like "You can take the yokel out of Ohio, but..."

- bmoodie

March 1, 2011 at 8:51pm

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I remember back when anything Communist was a threat to our freedom. More recently it was Islamic extremists. Now its British Colonialism? Next up, people who associate with individuals who have heterochromia are a threat to our freedom.

- Nusholtz

March 1, 2011 at 9:10pm

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DocStrange, I think the objection is not against a rejection of colonialism--you're right; almost no one is in favor of colonialism. Rather, the right-wing objection is against the anticolonialism as an ideology, a rather more specific thing, which (allegedly) hates everything US.

- Curran1

March 1, 2011 at 10:38pm

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I guess the thinking goes, we Americans didn't need colonialism because we were them and therefore just as good, nay, better. The blacks and browns, on the other hand ...

- NR409654

March 1, 2011 at 10:51pm

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Back in the day when conservatives were better known as Loyalists...

- Bukharin

March 2, 2011 at 7:59am

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I think they used anti-colonialist because calling him a Kenyan anti-American would have been the step too far.

- GSpinks

March 2, 2011 at 12:16pm

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Republicans can't quite bring themselves (yet) to just let their guard down altogether and call the President of the United States of America a nigger. So they call him a Kenyan, or an anit-colonialist, or a Mau-Mau, or a Muslim, or a foreign-born anti-American something-or-other. Don't kid yourself: the knuckle-draggers in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina get it. They know a dog-whistle when they hear it. You know, anyone can have a bad day on talk radio and say something stupid, especially when he's being egged on by some ignoramous birther type. But this hillbilly had a clear, unobstructed chance to walk back from the loonier aspects of his comments yesterday when he appeared with another fringe element radio whack job, and he only wound up repeating his ignorant drivel from the previous day. Inescapable conclusion: Huckabee's comments were anything but "misspoken". He knows exactly what he's saying.

- jegan

March 3, 2011 at 12:40pm

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