It seems there's lots of race talk these days:
Here's the thing. Glenn Beck wouldn't go on air and talk about how furious he is to have a guy get in his face if he didn't think it would strike a cord with his audience. So why do claims of racism strike such a cord with those on the right? It's often repeated by conservatives that racism doesn't exist in the way that liberals make it seem. But that's self-serving and not at all open minded to the worldview of minorities. I don't mean to focus too much on the issue, but we've done a very good job in this country of excusing the bating that comes along with modern GOP politics:
Glenn Beck, by contrast, like most conservatives, think that the preeminent racial problem in the United States is that white people are too put upon by political correctness. Conservatives are very very very concerned about this alleged problem of anti-racism run amok. And they’re very concerned about the alleged problem of reverse discrimination. But they don’t seem concerned at all about racism or discrimination and certainly not nearly as concerned as they about helping out the poor, put-upon white man.
And it’s not just a quirk of Beck’s. This attitude goes deep in the DNA of the modern conservative movement. National Review’s position on Civil Rights was that segregation was bad, but the cure of the civil rights movement was worse than the disease of white supremacy. Barry Goldwater campaigned for president on the proposition that Jim Crow might be bad, but not nearly so bad as the Civil Rights Act.
Being against an "other" is an important unifying factor for the GOP's base. That is demonstrated by the demographics of the party, which no longer enables it to hold sway over a majority of the country as it once did. Times change. There's a lot of talk about what the GOP has to do to get "back in the saddle." Being more inclusive and tolerant should be near the top of any list.
