Patrick McIlheran is flabbergasted that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, he of the Negro remarks, seems to think racism could be a powerful force in American politics:
In short, Reid was presuming that the electorate consists of bigots who’d be put off by a darker skin or a stronger accent. He presumed racism, in other words, and presumed not merely that it exists (as it does in ever smaller and more disreputable corners of American society) but that racism is dominant, widespread, an affliction that rules politics.
What a crabbed, cynical view of America, and we see how it poisoned Reid’s politics. Yes, Reid owes some apologies: To the several hundred million Americans who are not racists and who Reid, nonetheless, accused of racism.
What an embarrassingly delusional view of America -- or a cynically and deliberately obtuse one -- to suggest that racism is not a factor in our politics. Of course, Patrick McIlheran seems to believe that racism and white flight were not factors in the rise of the Milwaukee suburbs. So you can't expect him to recall that a not insignificant number of voters said they wouldn't vote for Obama because he was black, that the Republican takeover of the South waspredicated on racism, or that right wingers (including Wisconsin's No. 1 Cracker Fred Dooley) can't help firing off racist tweets.
And when he says "ever smaller and more disreputable corners of American society," is McIlheran referring to the audience that grooves on the race baiting regularly offered up by his buddy Charlie Sykes?
Elsewhere, Folkbum gives Paddy credit for reading comprehension. The Brawler calls this the soft bigotry of low expectations, as nowhere did Reid say that racism is "dominant."
Comments