UCOW: Cynthia Tucker Thinks you are a Raaaaacist.
Cynthia Tucker explains the zeitgeist:
Average Americans, normally sober-minded citizens, came undone over exaggerated threats and imagined enemies; rallied here by the thousands to “restore honor”; and denounced mosques, minority rights and the 14th Amendment — all the while demanding strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution.
Our long, hot summer needed another ingredient to induce a fever-like madness in the national psyche: demographic change. Over the last year and a half, Americans of European ancestry have begun to see a deeper message in President Obama’s inauguration — the end of the white majority. For many, especially those who are middle-aged and older, it’s a jarring and unwelcome message.
While many prognosticators were naive enough to believe that Obama’s election signaled the beginning of a post-racial era, it prompted something altogether different: a backlash against the browning of America. The winds of resentment would have blown in even if the economy were booming, but an anemic recovery was the perfect fuel for a summer of discontent. The backlash is now at gale force.
She makes a point to claim she is not painting all of America as racist. Just the 60% that opposes Obama, evidently. She’s careful to say that not all conservatives are bigots, but she goes on to write an entire piece about conservative bigotry. Her message couldn’t be clearer.
Where she gets it wrong of course is its not a fear of the browning of America. Its a real and justified fear of the socializing [the reddening and greening] of America.
