Dem Sen Jim Webb Defends Reverse Racism Myth and Nobody Notices

Just how fucking right-wing is the New Democrat/Blue Dog party? So fucking far right-wing that Rahm Emanuel protege Jim Webb, Sen from Virginia and an undeniable star in the ND/BD firmament, could actually write a WSJ Op-Ed against diversity and affirmative action policies using the same exact argument for ending them that we've heard from right-wing GOoPer kooks like Tom Tancredo and Jim DeMint, and which King Conservative Bigot Pat Buchanan had no difficulty defending. Viz: that diversity and affirmative action programs are reverse racism and just aren't fair because they hurt white people.

Forty years ago, as the United States experienced the civil rights movement, the supposed monolith of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance served as the whipping post for almost every debate about power and status in America. After a full generation of such debate, WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers. The time has come to cease the false arguments....

***

[P]resent-day diversity programs work against that notion, having expanded so far beyond their original purpose that they now favor anyone who does not happen to be white.

In an odd historical twist that all Americans see but few can understand, many programs allow recently arrived immigrants to move ahead of similarly situated whites whose families have been in the country for generations. These programs have damaged racial harmony. And the more they have grown, the less they have actually helped African-Americans, the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action as it was originally conceived.

***

Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.

Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.

(emphasis added)

I suspect it will come as smething of a surprise to Hispanics, Pakistanis, and other groups to discover that they aren't discriminated against. And I'm sure it will come as something of a surprise to the Mexicans living under that bridge in Richmond where I spent 3 weeks that they're the beneficiaries of so much govt largesse.

This is the same old "Hey, racism is soooo 1960's dirty-fucking-hippy. It's over, man. There isn't any racism any more and nobody discriminates anyhow, so what's with all this affirmative action shit? Enough already. We need that money for more tax cuts. And anyway, it hurts white people. Case closed."

It isn't the least surprising to me that a Rahm Boy ND/BD would spout this conservative GOP dogma for purposes of pandering to the wingnut wankers of the WSJ, the same clueless editorial bankster scum who called poor people "lucky duckies" because they could scam so much (largely mythical) govt stuff as if it was more than pre-digested puke from a phony Hertitage Foundation propaganda "study" and actually real, but it does surprise me that nobody on the left (that I've been able to find) appears to find it worthy of some sort of comment. For instance, Heather, who posted the Pat Buchanan interview (see link above), while full of opprobrium for Pat, doesn't have anything whatever to say about the Dem source that Pat is defending. Hmmm.

Are we now so accustomed to far-right wingnuttia swamping from the mouths of ND/BDs that we no longer even notice it?

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Comments

[vwclown]

Are we now so accustomed to far-right wingnuttia swamping from the mouths of ND/BDs that we no longer even notice it?

Yes.

[Mike J.]

You are reading this wrong. Webb is making an argument to treat people on the basis of their class (i.e. poverty level), not race. In other words, he's making exactly the same argument Shirley Sherrod made just a couple of weeks ago.

He's got it right, and you don't. Democrats need to focus on the question of poverty and, especially, inequality. Once that happens, everything else will fall into place. Once income inequality disappears, racial discrimination will vanish as well.

[mick]

Yeah, I'm reading it wrong. *sigh* It's Democrat apologists like you who make it so tough to get the ND/BD party to quit acting like Republicans. The country needs you to quit twisting ND/BD conservatism until it sounds like FDR liberalism. Facts need to be faced, Mike or we're going to end up with one Bush after another regardless of what their names are or which party wins.