What Digby Said

Today's episode: The Village Discovers Racism Still Exists.

I agree that it is akin to what happened to Clinton and others in the past, but the fact is that attacks on liberalism (certainly since 1968) are intrinsically concerned with race. In fact, America's long standing unwillingness to create a decent program of social insurance --- the fundamental cause of the various progressive movements --- is tied to the fact that many white Americans just didn't want their tax dollars to go to racial minorities. Now, many white Americans today may not make that direct connection (I would argue that plenty of them do) but the underpinning of the ongoing American antipathy to expansion of the safety net has many of its roots in racism.

Yes, racism has diminished and it has certainly changed its outward character. But it is one of the foundational principles upon which anti-communism, anti-socialism and anti-liberalism were built. It's baked in to one degree or another and it's no surprise that the dittoheads who have organized their lives for the past few decades in opposition to liberalism are particularly agitated by the election of a black president. It's all part of the same tapestry of fear and loathing that brought them to the teabaggery in the first place.

To support this, count the number of conservatives who thought spending $3 trillion plus and counting on unending war in the Middle East was a bad idea. Hell, most of them want us to either greatly expand the Afghan war, start a new war in Iran, or both. It's only intolerable liberalism if a Democrat spends money that might be used on minorities and helping Americans, rather than shiny bombs used for "helping" non-Americans.