Last Call For The Necessity Of Denial

The key component to being a conservative think tank pundit is denial, particularly when it comes to denial of bigotry.  It's the fundamental principle, the foundation, of conservative intellectualism.  America must be an absolutely equally fair and equitable society in every way, where there are no structural barriers of any kind to success and happiness.  The only problems in America come when government interferes in the glorious free markets, and that a perfect society would be free of these fetters.  Modern conservatism absolutely depends on this structure.

The millisecond a conservative admits there's any sort of structural problem in society:  racism, misogyny, bigotry based on sexual orientation or religious creed, or anything endemic to the American system, the game ends, and all their logic crumbles to "conservatism cannot be failed, this isn't real conservatism!"

So when presented with evidence that Atlanta's recent crippling by two inches of snow may have been exacerbated by the city's long and uncomfortable history with the city's black population, or that Minneapolis's low percentage of black home ownership meant there were additional structural problems educating black people about the dangers of radon poisoning, the conservative pundit must find a way to bring up another possible cause -- no matter how outlandish -- in order to prove that racism is dead in America.

Case in point:  John Hinderaker.

These are just two examples plucked from the constant stream of news stories that allege racism where none exists. Why is this effort so insistent? Why are we constantly bombarded with allegations of racism, at the very time when actual racism has dwindled to insignificance? The motive, it seems obvious, is political. The Democratic Party desperately needs to keep African-American voters on its plantation if it is to have any hope of maintaining power. (Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by 20 points among white voters in 2012, according to some estimates.) Because Americans in their daily lives rarely see evidence of racism, but are often reminded of the ubiquity of affirmative action, liberals in the news media must keep up a constant stream of tales about purported racism in order to create an alternative reality. Sowing racial division is a core strategy of the Democratic Party, and newspapers and magazines are its agents in executing that strategy.

In just one paragraph, Hinderaker encapsulates the seething rage conservatism has towards the minority experience (and not just the black one), erasing the personal experiences of millions of Americans of color, and simply believes any instances of racism to be a political plot orchestrated by Democrats in order to keep minorities ignorant and trapped voting for them.

In Hinderaker's world, minority voters, especially black ones like myself, are simply too stupid to see the the truth.  We're easily bamboozled by the liberal media and trapped like sheep anyway, so why would anyone want to give our experiences with racism any credence whatsoever?  Hinderaker hasn't experienced it, so it can't have any validity.  We're allllllll just making it up.

Bonus points for the real racism is his world being affirmative action, which actually is dwindling in American society thanks to a number of conservative lawsuits and court decisions.

If you're a minority and experience structural racism, you're in an alternate world, not America.  But I guess the incarceration and education and salary and home ownership numbers are all made up too.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

See if you can guess the source of this drivel (emphasis mine):

Americans heard President Barack Obama declare this week that he intends to bypass the gridlocked Hill to get things done on his own. What they didn't hear: just how far he’s actually pushing his executive authority. 

An in-depth examination of the administration’s actions and plans, agency by agency, regulation by regulation, reveals an executive power play that’s broad and bold — and intensely ambitious. Far more than he let on in the State of the Union, the president has marshaled the tools of his office to advance policies, many unabashedly liberal, that push deep into everyday life for tens of millions of Americans. 

He wants to change how power plants operate. And what we buy for lunch. How we travel to work. And how our kids learn math. How our gasoline is formulated. How we light our aquariums. 

Already, the president’s team has enacted 300 economically significant regulations, far more than Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan did in comparable periods. Some of those rules are driven by the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank banking reform, the two big laws Obama pushed through Congress early in his first term, when he had Democratic majorities in both houses. But there is far more.

Answer after the jump.

The Proles Are Required To Consume More Confectioneries

Ann Romney feels sorry for you, America.  You didn't elect her husband, after all, and now, well....

Ann Romney isn't sad her husband lost the presidency for her sake — she's sad on behalf of America. And she still regularly runs into people who are sad Romney lost in 2012, probably at the country club. 

The coulda-been-First Lady appeared on Fox News Friday morning to talk Mitt the movie (which is good) and, of course, Mitt the man who, his wife says, is "a pretty independent, wonderful guy." 

Romney ("Best-selling author," per the chyron) "always believed [Mitt] was going to be the president of the United States," she tells Fox's Bill Hemmer. When he didn't: "We lost, but truly the country lost, by not having Mitt as president." Then she decides that she'll "be polite and nice and not comment" on how she actually thinks Obama's second term is going. We tried to guess her opinion on the topic and were unable to do so. 

Responding to reports that Mitt leads in a early 2016 New Hampshire poll (despite his not running), Ann said she wasn't surprised. "I run across people all the time and they're still really upset about the election," Romney says. "They're still really sad." Then she left the studio, perhaps destined for one of the Romney family's various houses scattered around the country.

Marie Antoin-nutjob here doesn't understand why you unwashed troglodytes didn't crown her husband as our new glorious master of America, Inc. and stuff.  She feels only sadness of the one percent who matter, and confusion that the grunting, pissing yokels we so graciously allow to vote didn't discharge their duty and toss the Mulatto-In-Chief from the aptly named abode he resided in.

Which makes sense.  The "conservative intellectual" chattering class likes to entertain themselves by pretending they are super-intelligent and that anyone who pulls the level for a Democrat is a "low-information voter".  After all, if we were all as smart as Ann Romney, not only would we have elected Mitt in a landslide, but we'd all be fabulously wealthy, too, like the Romneys.  Which obviously makes them smarter than all of us.

Just not smart enough to think down to our poop-throwing level in order to convince us to vote for the guy.

I'm betting one of the most sad people she's met is this guy.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• The FAA has grounded plans for a Minnesota brewery to deliver beer by drone to ice-fishers until the agency can work out detailed flight rules for commercial drones sometime in 2015.
• President Obama says it's up to Congress to legislate marijuana, despite calls for him to direct the DEA to reclassify pot as no longer a dangerous drug.
• The FBI says suspicious letters containing a powdery substance mailed to locations near the site of this year's Super Bowl are not dangerous, and they are investigating the source.
• GOP Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, says he sees enough Republican votes for a clean debt ceiling increase in the Senate, but the House may be a completely different story.
• South Dakota is the latest state to offer legislation that would "protect" science teachers whose lessons include intelligent design in the classroom.