In my May Diary I wondered aloud, in the context of Judge Sotomayor’s assertions of tribal allegiance, whether

these established protocols [i.e. tribal assertiveness disgracefully shameful for white Americans, but indicative of “dignity” and “pride” for everyone else] will survive in a majority-minority U.S.A.

The Inductivist has been having some similar thoughts. He argues that there are two possible futures. Ethnic self-assertion has to be legitimate either for everyone or for no-one:

I’ve felt plenty of distance from the Republican Party for several years, but the comments from prominent conservatives like Gingrich and Limbaugh, and the more diplomatic words from leaders like Graham make me respect the party a little more. They are acting like grown-ups, while liberals are fighting to keep us on a road of non-white racialism and eventual white racialism and social instability.

The question for the next couple of decades will be: Is getting white Americans to join the ethnic spoils system easier than getting non-whites to abandon it? The answer surely is that so long as liberals continue fiercely to defend the spoils system, it will be easier for whites to join it than to abolish it. As Jonah has shown, the end result will not be particularly anomalous in the history of modern liberalism.