Thursday, May 20, 2010

Guilty White liberals giving lectures

White liberal Josh Rosenau of the National Center on Science Education, after claiming I was a staffer with "The Family Forum of Kentucky" (never heard of the group), quotes my article yesterday on Rand Paul and says I am "excited about Rand Paul's recent primary victory."

I am? Geez. I didn't even vote for the guy. What is it with these White liberals?

And then Rosenau goes on to give the obligatory guilty White liberal lecture about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I don't know, but I get the sense that Rosenau is a member of the party of George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Robert C. Byrd.

But I could be mistaken.

3 comments:

Josh Rosenau said...

A) You've whined in the past when I didn't link back to your posts (e.g., http://vereloqui.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-last-time.html), so the non-hypocritical thing to do here would be to link to the post you're complaining about.

B) I corrected your affiliation in my post. FWIW, there's no such thing as the "National Center on Science Education." Also no such thing as "National Association for Science Education" or "National Council for Science Education". You sure you wanna play the typo gotcha game?

C) Voting for someone is not a prerequisite for being excited over that person's election. I take it as evidence of your being excited over his victory when you write: "Rand Paul has become the Cinderella story of this political season. …[Paul] has charmed the electorate of his party… The fairy-tale nature of Paul's rise to national prominence … his status as giant-killer. …Paul's campaign seemed enchanted," and so forth. Also when you previously touted his endorsements and wrote: "Rand Paul has been, if not the superior potential senator, at least the superior candidate. He is smarter, more thoughtful, and more articulate than Trey Grayson. …I was even thinking of personally endorsing him here on this blog. … I'd like to see him do well."

D) The Civil Rights Act is a good thing. If you disagree, make an argument. If you agree, then take it up with your nominee for US Senate. He dug his own hole on this matter, and he just keeps on digging.

E) I've never met, voted for, or lived in the same state as George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, or Robert Byrd. I know Thurmond left the Democratic Party precisely because of racial politics, Wallace ran for President as an Independent for the same reason, and Byrd has expressed deep regret for and repudiated his early ties to the KKK.

When Rand Paul apologizes for his actions as vigorously and honestly as Byrd has – writing "I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times… and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened" – then we can have a different conversation.

When Johnson (D-TX) signed the Civil Rights Act, he declared that doing so would cost Democrats the South for a generation. Nixon followed up on that opportunity with his famed "Southern strategy," a tactic that conservasaint Ronald Reagan gleefully embraced. Even the current RNC chairman, asked what reasons African-Americans had to vote GOP, acknowledged: "You really don't have a reason to, to be honest — we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True."

Democrats 60 years ago were awful on race, but in the 30 years I've been alive, it's a very different story. Some day conservatives might decide to catch up. What I'm seeing of Rand Paul's "intellectual" leadership" won't help that happen.

F) Am I white? Yes. Liberal? Yes. But I'm not sure why should feel guilty, and I certainly don't. Unlike some people I could mention, I've worked to increase, not decrease, civil rights.

My post (as your readers will learn when you nut up and provide a link), also quoted Ta-Nehisi Coates' comments on Paul's opposition to the Civil Rights Act. Coates is not what I'd call a "guilty white liberal."

G) Paul has now come out in favor of the Civil Rights Act, reversing his position from earlier in the day and behaving like, if I may coin a phrase, a "guilty white conservative." In his case, there's even something to feel guilty about.

Aagcobb said...

Martin,

I strongly suspect you are also a member of one of the political parties Strom Thurmond belonged to, are you not? And are you not also a member of the same political party as the only two mainstream politicans who currently believe that racist business owners should have the right to discriminate against minorities, Ron Paul and Rand Paul?

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