There's clearly a cultural component to the current lib/con schism in the society, something that transcends political ideology, economic class, or even racial or ethnic background. It may not be racism per se, but race, or at least ethnicity, has a lot to do with it.

I've given it some thought, and I think I'm starting to make some sense of it. Underneath the ideological camouflage, there is basically a conflict between what I like to think of (for lack of a better term) "Nativist" and "Cosmopolitan" values.

Ironically, the aboriginal inhabitants of North America never were part of the "Nativist" cohort. Neither were the Negro slaves who were introduced in Colonial times, although their descendants certainly are more legitimately "American" by now than most of the whites who live here. The Caucasian settlers were a motely crew who defined themselves as primarily Western European, although they had considerable conflicts amonst themselves, reflecting class, religious and national divisions they brought with them to the New World. The "Scotch-Irish" for example, were thrown out of several places before they ever got here, and were not readily acccepted by the Nativists when they did arrive. Many wound up in the least choice districts of Appalachia because everything east of the fall line was already occupied.

Post-colonial immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe were originally excluded as non-nativist, and their struggle to assimilate into American society has long been characterized by racism directed against them, and a racism they quickly adopted to legitimize their own latecomer status. The Eastern European Jews, Irish and Italians are perfect examples.

After almost 400 years, a lot of these distinctions have been forgotten, or have been otherwise transformed in strange ways, but they linger on in this debate as to who is the "real" American, the bearer of Nativist virtue and legitimacy, and the Cosmopolitan outsider, corrupted by foreign ideas and attitudes. You will note how often the political debate so quickly and so often degenerates into claims of what's "really" American...as if any petty political disagreement were necessarly evidence of a lack of patriotism.

Most Americans, having been here so long and having tried so hard to fit in, can't see this, any more than a fish realizes he lives in water, or a land animal realizes he lives in air. Americans as a nation are not as cognizant of ethnic diversity as say, Europeans, who often live near a shifting and historically unstable national frontier and who often are forced to learn several languages just to conduct their day to day business.

I like to think I have some awareness of this since I have had the good fortune of being born and raised in this country (albeit in a homogeneous immigrant community, surrounded by a very homogeneous Anglo-Saxon one), as were my parents, but all four of my grandparents came from the Old Country and that culture is still second nature to me. I have the good fortune to be bicultural and bilingual, and most important, have always thought of myself that way, for as long as I can remember. I see and sense things many of my fellow Americans (and Cuban compatriots) just don't seem to be able to "get". I especially delight in how deliciously similar the prejudices each cohort has about the other are.

I'm struggling to communicate this, but I'm finding it very difficult. Still, trust me, I can see this dynamic at work in many of the debates and conflicts going on in this country right now. There are two tribes here, Nativist and Cosmopolitan. The former senses the presence of the latter as a stranger, not just ethnically, but politically, culturally and intellectually. And they fear him. They seem him as a threat. For our entire history, our forefathers struggled to fit in, and were suspicious of each new wave of immigration that followed them.

As for "Selective Outrage", I have my own term for it: The self-righteous indignation of the justly persecuted.