NEW YORK — If Americans were represented by an animal, it wouldn’t be an eagle. It would be a tiny shrew, nervous and paranoid and living in constant terror of being attacked by predators.
Our national prey mentality doesn’t have much basis in reality. The last attack on U.S. soil took place two-thirds of a century ago; Hawaii wasn’t even a state at the time. Before that, you have to go back to 1846 — and we provoked that one. Whatever the historical basis — or lack thereof — for this innate fearfulness, U.S. voters look to their president as a father-protector figure — someone who, if threatened, will ferociously defend what is now called, stupidly and horribly, das Homeland.
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