Still on the subject of Mark Twain, you'll have noticed I only quoted the first part of his text from Wikiquote. That's because that was what was in the comic. The first, and unquoted part, is also topic of our recent political history.

Quote:
Against our traditions we are now entering upon an unjust and trivial war, a war against a helpless people, and for a base object — robbery. At first our citizens spoke out against this thing, by an impulse natural to their training. Today they have turned, and their voice is the other way. What caused the change? Merely a politician's trick — a high-sounding phrase, a blood-stirring phrase which turned their uncritical heads: Our Country, right or wrong! An empty phrase, a silly phrase. It was shouted by every newspaper, it was thundered from the pulpit, the Superintendent of Public Instruction placarded it in every schoolhouse in the land, the War Department inscribed it upon the flag. And every man who failed to shout it or who was silent, was proclaimed a traitor — none but those others were patriots. To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, "Our Country, right or wrong," and urge on the little war. Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation?
- Mark Twain

You'll remember the labelling trick was used in the US in the last decade very often to call a lot of people 'unamerican', 'anti-american' and other things in the same vein. It is obviously not a new trick.