The swift axing of Roseanne Barr kicked off a Mardi Gras of gloating by liberals, especially those who like to ferret out the racism/sexism/xenophobia of others. If I had a dollar for every Daily Kos diary that amounted to, “See? See? It’s not economic anxiety!” I could treat everyone to dinner at Sullivan’s.
This reaction shows, yet again, the incredible solipsism of liberals. Because they never think this through even to the next step — if the country runs on a racist agenda, how did Obama ever get elected? Why doesn’t a racist win every election?
The answer to this is obvious, yet invisible to so many liberals: These people have always been racist. They didn’t just develop into racists because Donald Trump said it was OK (though they are giving public voice to their racism because he said it’s OK). Wake up, liberals, and acknowledge that it’s possible to be both racist and anxious about one’s declining prospects in a country without blue-collar jobs.
In fact, I would go further and posit that racism is a core value, while anxiety, economic or otherwise, comes and goes. If racism got people elected, it should go without saying, government would be full of racists (perhaps it is, but they didn’t get there by running on that). But history, here and abroad, shows that economic stress is what topples governments — or, in nominally democratic countries, gets them voted out.
In short, yes, they’re racist, but so what? They’ve always been racist, yet some of them even voted for Obama. The racism is a constant, the economic anxiety is variable — so which one was actually the factor that got Trump to the tipping point?
The logic is inescapable, but that doesn’t mean smug liberals won’t keep trying to escape it.