Obama – McCain isn’t merely a clash of ideologies; it’s an argument of what it really means to be American.

On one hand we have McCain, the quintessential “American Legend”. John McCain is the war hero. The gutsy battlefield veteran who’s stared death in the face, spat on it and kicked it in the nuts. He’s a white guy’s white guy – when the gooks tried to break him, he didn’t give them an inch. He stuck with his friends even while he had an easy way out. He’s made himself the scourge of The Hill as a maverick and outsider, willing to take stand on things he believed in, regardless of political expediency or party affiliations. He’s a man firmly convinced of the righteousness of America’s cause, and that what makes America right is the righteousness of America’s founding – the inherent principle of human freedom and democracy enshrined in its constitution. He’s tough, he’s gutsy and he doesn’t give up or give in. He is the American of fable and legend.

On the other side we have Obama, the cosmopolitan “American Dreamer”. Barack Obama is the American-born child of a Kenyan Muslim, raised a Christian by white grandparents, schooled in Indonesia and America; a man of many worlds and a product of God’s crucible, to quote Israel Zangwill. Working as a community organizer, a university lecturer, a lawyer then a senator of Illinois, he is a quiet product of another America, one of pragmatism and quite strength. He’s one whose sense of righteousness is tempered by empathy and his principles are guided by intellect. He is of the breed that holds America as a noble, but fallible nation and possessed of the quiet belief that for it to be truly great, it will have to grow into a truly global nation that encompasses all. He is the American that America itself likes to see itself as.

Ultimately, however, these two Americans are due to clash. In a perfect world, they needn’t. The American Legend and the American Dreamer ought to be one and the same, yet they are not and much of America’s recent history has been reconciling what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King called “the true meaning of its creed” with its reality of segregation and racism. America was the last Western country to abolish the institution of slavery and up until the middle of the 20^th century, America was a segregated country. And beyond the racism, there is the disdain for intellectualism; the effete contemplation of theoretical ideas and the amoral complexities of life that are so often an antithesis of American legends who is supposed to act on instinct and just plain dig in, grit their teeth and get the job done.

For much of the country’s existence, the “American Legend” has been tough, hard baked, principled and very, very white.

The other American is the child of that creed – the American Dreamer is a product of the belief that all men are created equal. Cosmopolitan and intellectual, this breed counts amongst its members some of the greatest names in American history – Franklin, Hamilton, Lincoln. Yet this breed has always been somewhat disconnected with America in general – American, yet not quite – and has grown further from its sibling over the passage of time. With the end of segregation and the creation of an increasingly cosmopolitan America, the two stereotypes are set for a clash – between an America that Was and an America that Might Yet Be.

This is pretty much the final escalation of the culture wars that have dominated America’s narrative for nearly half a century. It would be too much to draw any conclusions from the winner of this race – more than likely the battle will continue at all levels – but the election season so far looks set to set this matchup as the largest and most brutal clash of cultures in decades.