The New Era’s letter to the editor page, always sort of a sewer of authoritarian thinking, seems to have really taken a plunge off the deep end of late. There’s a real hum-dinger today, written by an East Lampeter woman who’s somehow under the impression, after essentially seven years of Republican rule, that America is somehow awash in socialism. But she keeps coming back to some version of this:

“It is imperative that we display the strength to fight this war on terror and not relinquish our beliefs…”

“If we do not have the courage to defeat the destructive forces of terrorism,w e will never have the courage to stand strong for our American beliefs.”

“Unfortunately, the patriots among us choose to speak without voices to defend our American ideals.”

“American ideals.” “American beliefs.” I should like to ask this woman - who doesn’t define it anywhere in her letter - just what are these “American beliefs” you keep invoking?

Are we talking, say, freedom of speech?

Well no, right-wingers really aren’t in favor of freedom of speech, because freedom of speech means people are allowed to say and write and even think things that run counter to their American beliefs, whatever they might be. Clearly, these voices need to be silenced in this hour of national peril. So no, we’re really not standing up for anyone’s rights. We’re really not standing up for freedom.

But beyond that - what American “beliefs” do we possess? Besides, that is, pure exceptionalism: That America is better than anyplace else and therefore American “beliefs” constitute the country itself; and since we need to defend America itself from the evil nefarious terrorists who are hiding behind every tree and lurking in every shadow, we must take whatever actions we deem necessary - even if they violate what at least in theory have been “American beliefs.”

I mean, we see that in spades now with the debate over waterboarding, over torture. Sullivan linked to an amazing piece from the conservative National Review Online, in which Deroy Murdock says not only should we continue to waterboard, but that waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud.

This because waterboarding “makes tight-lipped terrorists talk.” And he cites several instances where suspects have reportedly coughed up info after having been waterboarded. But as Sullivan notes, “we have no firm evidence of this except the words of those who authorized the torture.” Further:

It remains the case that even if you buy the self-serving argument of the president, none of these cases represent the ticking time-bomb scenario so beloved of Alan Dershowitz. None. And that is precisely the point of this canard: not to accept, as everyone does, that in the one-in-a-million case of an imminent nuclear attack, a president may decide to do what he needs to do before subjecting himself to legal punishment or pardon; but to find a way to make torture a routine part of American government and national security. This is what Bush and Cheney have done and want to continue doing.

My question to today’s letter-writer would then be, do you support this - and how in the world can that be construed to comport with “American beliefs?”

In fact, it does the opposite of it; waterboarding is the opposite of what Americans are supposed to believe, or pretend to believe. But I’m sure that wouldn’t compute with our  letter-writer.

This is sheer tribalism with an American flag draped across its shoulders. And all of it leads to the notion that while today’s right-wingers, cornered like rats amidst crumbling public support, a failed war, an ideology now judged by history itself to be insufficient and even damaging and dangerous, continue to push the idea that it’s all the liberals fault, that all that ails the nation can be traced back to liberals’ insufficient nationalism. They stand up for “American beliefs” - by subverting them. They raise high the torch of freedom, then back warrantless wiretapping. They are steadfast in their belief in our moral superiority. But they think the president should have the authority to blow off the Geneva Conventions.

So who really believes in those American beliefs?