Eugene Robinson’s column is sad.It’s sad because it’s a rehash of a stupid argument from a year ago that hasn’t improved with age. It’s sad because Robinson seems unaware that the “take back America” language has nothing to do with race. If it did, then Howard Dean, John Kerry, and the entire Democratic party were somehow racist when they used exactly that language against Bush. It’s sad because the people who have turned most sharply on Obama since he took office are independents — the same constituency that put Obama in the White House in the first place. Were they racists when they voted for him, or did they become racist when they changed their minds? If only the allegedly racist tea partiers had turned on Obama, he’d still have approval ratings in the high 60s. It’s sad because Robinson seems to think his column represents novel or deep thinking. But it’s sad most of all because it shows how it’s not the tea partiers who are obsessed with Obama’s race, it’s people like Robinson, and they project the evil version of their own obsessions on the political opposition.
To paraphase comments that you've made in the past, the new definition of a racist (and a Fascist) is a conservative winning an argument.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf John Kerry or Howard Dean or John Edwards had won in '08 and followed the same policies, is there any doubt that the trajectory would have been the same? Of course, Mr. Robinson would say "No", but he would be wrong.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere's some group running radio ads in Clark County Nevada that also thinks that "take back America" is about race. The ads have a man and a woman with obviously black accents saying "take back America from who? We can't let them take it back from us!"
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