Its sad really sad

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It’s sad, really sad, to watch some conservatives try to wriggle out of, or turn the tide against Democrats, in this evolving national conversation about race. Patrick Ruffini runs a very nice blog from the rightward side of the political spectrum and he’s just posted an entry attacking one of mine of last night. He argues that the Democrats have just as bad a history of race-bating in the urban centers of the North.

It’s certainly true that, as Southerners of all political stripes have long said, racism isn’t limited to the South. It’s just more visible there.

That said, Ruffini’s list of particulars is pretty revealing in its weakness. He says it’s a list he came up with off the top of his head of instances since 1968. Oddly, most seem to be from 1968 and 1969. They’re examples of the original Mayor Daley or George Wallace when he ran as a Democrat in 1972. Isn’t this sort of pitiful?

Another example of his is former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo. That, of course, is a poor and telling example since Rizzo eventually became a Republican in large measure because of his admittedly rather unrefined views of racial matters. As in the South, there were tons of racist and anti-civil rights Democrats. Most became Republicans.

My point here is not to pile on. Democrats certainly aren’t pure on race. Far from it. But I think most conservatives will realize that the argument Ruffini is trying to make is a losing one. Not to mention a pathetic one.

Many Republicans want to rid their party of this ugly baggage. Many more refuse to play this sort of politics for advantage. But over the last forty-odd years, many Republicans, in many small and large decisions, decided to organize much of our national and even more of our regional politics around race. They shouldn’t whine. They shouldn’t cry. They shouldn’t make up excuses. They made their bed. Now they should sleep in it.

P.S. Ruffini says I have ‘statist economic views’. What on earth he’s talking about I have not a clue.

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