America's Remaining Racists

Racism doesn't look like Bull Connor these days. Now it is practiced in a much more genteel manner — and often by projection. An easy way to summarize some of this racism is through James Taranto's comments:

A racist dog whistle, then, is a speech that sounds innocuous to the normal human ear but that racist "dogs" are able to recognize as an appeal to them.

What does it tell us about Matt Stoller that he is able to detect whether the "racist dog whistle" has been blown? ...

But you can see where all this is going. If Obama is the Democratic nominee, the liberal message will be that a vote for McCain is a vote for racism.

This approach by people like Stoller is, itself, racist. It is of a piece with charging Geraldine Ferraro with racism for making a simple observation. (Let's face it, the views and proposals of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards are nearly indistinguishable. The differences among them are in personality and in identity politics. Hillary Clinton gets extra votes because of those guilty liberals who want to see a woman — any woman — in the White House. Barack Obama gets extra votes because of those blacks and guilty white liberals who want to see a black man — any black man — in the White House. John Edwards has no identity politics group to help him, loses votes to both the others, and has to drop out early because he is a white male.)

Taranto continues:

If McCain wins, liberal mythmakers will insist it is because America is a racist country, and their logic will be as airtight as Stoller's and Yglesias's. Whether for political reasons or out of their own moral vanity, those who claim they want "racial reconciliation" are all too eager to practice divisive, if stupid, politics.

I would say these people are racist liberal mythmakers, operation out of political reasons or their own racist moral vanity. Continuing:

This comes on the heels of suggestions from various commentators, including Time's Joe Klein, that the Democrats shove Obama and Hillary Clinton aside and nominate Gore for president — because, we guess, favoring a white guy isn't racist or sexist if you're a Democrat.

Recent events like these have demonstrated to me that racism is much more alive in America than I have wanted to believe. Racism in America is alive and well among the skinheads, in Black churches, and among the liberals in the Democratic Party.