Why the left needs racism

Racism, in my opinion, was dying out before 2009--panicked Democrats then had to ratchet it up because without victims, who would vote for their progressive policies which demand more government? Obama took his amazing win and frittered it away on insurance reform that about 10% of the population needed, added mandates no one wanted, and ignored the financial plight of many blacks and a deteriorating middle eastern problem. So who gets blamed? Everyone who wasn't black. Crime rates have been dropping for 2 decades, and that was upsetting for Democrats too--that party must have victims for the nanny state.  These links are to articles are the observations of James Taranto, writer for Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324591204579038930800899184 Third part

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703922804576301162877959524 Second part

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704671904575193921155425154  First part

Biden comes around to Palin's view

According to James Taranto [July 7, WSJ], the Israel viewpoint for which Palin was attacked and ridiculed during the recent campaign, is now that of the current administration, via Joe Biden.

"Over the weekend, as we noted yesterday, Vice President Biden said that if Israel decides it needs to take military action against the Iranian nuclear-weapons program, the U.S. will not "dictate" otherwise. A reader points out that Sarah Palin, who ran against Biden in last year's election, said much the same thing in a September interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson:

Gibson: What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?
Palin: Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don't think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.
Gibson: So if we wouldn't second-guess it and they decided they needed to do it because Iran was an existential threat, we would cooperative or agree with that.
Palin: I don't think we can second-guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.
Gibson: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right.
Palin: We cannot second-guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.
Palin reiterated the point in a later interview with CBS's Katie Couric."

Reviewing Charlie's interview I wonder if he would have been so intent on tripping up a male ethnic Democrat running for president, or if race trumps gender in the diversity wars. The male dominated, owned and controlled media were certainly intent on assuring that no woman occupy the White House except as First Lady. Taranto goes on to point out that for this steady hand and unwillingness to cave, she was called stupid, robotic, repeating pro-Israel buzz words, and a puppet of the pro-Jewish Cabal. But those same critics, supporters of the Obama-Biden dog and pony apology tour, are saying Biden's response is subtle--most Americans aren't smart enough to even understand--or that he doesn't reflect Obama's thinking, or they just don't say anything in the range of stupid or robotic. Ah, freedom of the press. We folks enjoying democracy are certainly lucky we don't have a media that parrot the party in power.

Clown or an elder past his prime?

James Taranto wasn't too upset by Joseph Lowry's imitation of a once respected pastor and civil rights leader. I thought it quite disrespectful of the occasion we were being told was beyond fabulous and historic and insulting of all races. Taranto compared him to the "All in the Family" TV show of the 70s--Lowry is a victim of his era, apparently. Isn't that infantilizing him? Did people laugh because they thought he was funny or because they were embarrassed for him?

"One of the striking things about watching "All in the Family" more than 35 years later is that Archie Bunker turns out to be the most sympathetic character. When he argues with his liberal son-in-law, he's right about half the time and wrong about half the time, but you forgive the latter because he was a product of his times. On the other hand, the earnest self-righteousness of the son-in-law is grating, even when he is right on the merits.

So if Joseph Lowery wants to spend his dotage clowning around in a bigoted way, we can afford to indulge him. There's no reason to be meatheads about it.

Yes, definitely infantilizing. "Oh, just pay no attention to him . . . he's old. . . used to be SOMEBODY though. Time to change his diaper."

Taranto also noticed world opinion hasn't changed much. . . "Bloomberg sends a team of reporters to places ruled by anti-American regimes--Gaza, Iran, Venezuela--and also to Pakistan, to get reaction to President Obama's inauguration. Surprise, surprise, the quotes it collects are still anti-American." I noticed also that there were riots in Seoul, a military build up in China against Tibet, an Irish tycoon committed suicide, the Japanese have downgraded their economy, someone died of bird flu, the UN is still totally ineffective no matter where it tries to intervene, and housing industry new builds are still tanking. Good Golly Miss Molly nuttin' changed.