Frank Rich writes in the NYT about the tea-party and the Glenn Beck inspired rage sweeping town-halls and the president’s address to congress.
Tag: barack obama
Competing views on racism
David Brooks and Bob Herbert both have articles in the NYT about the role race is playing in the health-care debate. Each of them reaches a completely different conclusion.
On this occasion I find myself leaning towards Herbert. I don’t think every person who opposes Obama’s health care proposal, or Obama himself is racist, but I do think the fringe has been allowed to move closer to the center of power and the Republican party platform. Ever since Nixon’s Southern strategy, the republican party has consciously exploited and encouraged racial anxiety amongst white Americans (of course, Southern democrats did the same thing quite well prior to LBJ).
Joe Wilson and the yell.
I normally find Maureen Dowd too shrill to read all the way through, but her article in the NYT today on Joe Wilson is revealing.