After reading a few different points of view on why a national political campaign feels safe disparaging gamers, I stumbled across one idea that rings true.

It’s not an accident. It’s not Goldfarb being flip. He did it once and gave a clever apology, then did it again a month later. I’m going to assume he’s a smart guy who knows what he’s doing.

So what’s he doing?

In the minds of some people (notably the Religious Right), “Dungeons & Dragons player” is a codeword for “Satanist.” This works much in the way that “no litmus test for judges” actually means “picking pro-life judges.”

In this case, Goldfarb uses this misconception about gamers as a wide brush with which he can tar anyone he likes. Pro-Obama bloggers? Satanists. Editors of the New York Times? Satanists.

The mad brilliance of this, of course, is that if the people against McCain are with Satan, then just who is with McCain?

Michael Goldfarb, an aide to John McCain, recently wrote a blog post about the flap over whether or not McCain stole his “cross in the dirt” anecdote from legendary author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. While trying to make his point that the similarities between the stories are perfectly plausible, he writes:

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

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