The Jacksonian Tradition: An Interview
with Lance Corporal Nathan (Chad) Yeager
Bill Ardolino (H/T: Allahpundit)

A preface: A few weeks before coming over here, I met a pleasant Icelandic woman in a bar. A friend introduced us and told her that I was headed to Iraq, which precipitated her espousal of series of interesting political and cultural opinions. Perhaps the most baffling was her repetitive insistence on the morally equivalent, "but what is a terrorist, really?", after I'd employed the term to describe some, but not all, insurgents in Iraq. Even after I explained - three times - that a person who intentionally kills children to sow fear and make a political point animates the term, she had to agree to disagree, and move on to her next silly argument.

It was one of my favorites: "Members of the military are dumb or disadvantaged folks who have been duped or forced into going to Iraq."

I mentioned patriotism, family tradition and the Jacksonian tradition, written about rather eloquently by Walter Russell Meade:

To understand how Crabgrass Jacksonianism is shaping and will continue to shape American foreign policy, we must begin with another unfashionable concept: Honor. Although few Americans today use this anachronistic word, honor remains a core value for tens of millions of middle-class Americans, women as well as men. The unacknowledged code of honor that shapes so much of American behavior and aspiration today is a recognizable descendant of the frontier codes of honor of early Jacksonian America.

[...]

I was surprised when she recognized the term, and even more surprised when she still wouldn't accept my argument.

"They are just poor and uneducated," she said.

I took another stab: citing my high school friend Dan Eggers, my grandfather, various people I know or have read about, none of whom were poor, dumb or otherwise disadvantaged. Exceptions to the rule, according to her. Soon thereafter, our conversation came to a polite end.

Which brings me to this interview: ...

Read the whole thing, and do follow that link to the paper on the Jacksonian tradition.