Maryland Conservatarian

It’s been awhile since I’ve commented on a piece by my good friend E. J. Dionne but his latest highlights a new but predictable talking point of the left: If Obama loses, blame racism.

“There is no doubt that two keys to this election are: How many white and Latino votes will Obama lose because of his race that a white Democrat would have won? And how much will African American turnout grow, given the opportunity to elect our nation's first black president.” E. J. Dionne Jr. - The Unavoidable Issue - washingtonpost.com

Identity politics is a distinctly Democratic party tactic…as we saw so amusingly during the primaries as liberals had to decide which sin they were more guilt-ridden over: Racism or Sexism.

“Let's dispose of the canard that there is something wrong with black people voting in overwhelming numbers for a black candidate. Minorities in the United States always turn out in a big way for the candidate who is breaking barriers on their behalf.”

We should all resist the liberal siren song of trusting them to know what’s best for us: Currying racially-based favors is either right or wrong…not just right when well-meaning liberals or aggrieved minorities employ the tactic or wrong when it’s not a Democrat. If some voters infer that other voters (all of which happen to share a common characteristic) are voting as a block for some perceived advantages, it is certainly not a bigoted response to then vote their own self-interest – esp. if those perceived advantages involve zero-sum games such as preferred school admissions or contract set-asides.

For Senator Obama to lose votes on account of racism, presumably he otherwise would have been able to count on those votes. And remember that no matter the skin color of the Democratic nominee, he or she was not going to do well among Republicans. So to suggest that racism will be a factor come November is to suggest that the problem lies with fellow-Democrats. I am not so suggesting but I’ll not waste a lot of time arguing with those liberal Democrats who do.


Side Note: As an acceptable example of a minority voting as a block, Mr. Dionne goes back 48 years to when Catholics overwhelmingly voted for John Kennedy. He follows up with this remarkably irrelevant comment:

“Proportionately, Kennedy's gain among Catholics [30%] was far greater than Obama's likely pickup over John Kerry's 2004 vote among African Americans, judging by the current polls.”

Irrelevant because it would be statistically impossible for any Democrat to increase his party’s share of the black vote by 30% since John Kerry received approximately 88% in 2004.