No racism to see here, folks. Move along, please. Part 2

by David Safier

Last night I wrote about the frightening number of death threats Obama receives, 4 times more than any previous president. To say racism isn't involved is ludicrous, unless you think any Democratic president who sat in the White House right now and had a similar agenda would get the same number of threats. That supposition may be even more frightening.

Now to today's column by Pat Buchanan on the WorldNetDaily website. The head is Traditional Americans are losing their nation. Granted, Buchanan didn't write the head, but "Traditional Americans?" Who are they exactly? Native Americans, who are, well, Native to the Americas, here thousands of years before anyone else? African Americans who have been here for hundreds of years? European Americans, who have been here a little while longer (I think) than African Americans? The headline reveals WorldNetDaily's world view, as if it needed any more revealing. "Traditional" is synonymous with "white."

Buchanan writes about a group called "Oath Keepers."

Formed in March, they are ex-military and police who repledge themselves to defend the Constitution, even if it means disobeying orders. If the U.S. government ordered law enforcement agencies to violate Second Amendment rights by disarming the people, Oath Keepers will not obey.

"The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," says founding father Stewart Rhodes, an ex-Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them.

"We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you."

Then Buchanan goes on to discredit the idea that today's dissatisfaction has anything to do with race. But in the process . . .

Buchanan is a clever guy and a good writer, and he weaves his arguments together in a way that defends him against a charge of racism at the same time he's revealing his  racism. I'm pulling out a few telling passages. Go to the column if you want more context.

Ron Brownstein reports in the National Journal:

"Whites are not only more anxious, but also more alienated. Big majorities of whites say the past year's turmoil has diminished their confidence in government, corporations and the financial industry. … Asked which institution they trust most to make economic decisions in their interest, a plurality of whites older than 30 pick 'none' – a grim statement."

[snip]

In their lifetimes, [white working class voters] have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.

They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on – then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand U.S. citizenship.

They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.

Nope, no racism here. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along, please.