180 degrees of victimhood, part I

Way way back in 2010 Tom Junod wrote a fascinating piece for Esquire about Barack Obama's political style.  The gist of the piece was that Obama, as a firm believer in the parenting movement called Positive Discipline, was applying the rules he and his wife used to raise their daughters, to the government of the United States. 

Post-Racial America. Except for the Scots-Irish.

What is pretty clear now, is that after the Civil War, the Jim Crow laws, the lynchings, beatings, shootings and bombings, the civil rights movement and all the laws passed by legislatures of both parties in all fifty states, and all the advantages and opportunities they've been given, that some White Americans are just genetically incapable of being fair to Black people.

Despite the fact that its both the law and its the right thing to do, some White Americans are just basically violent racists. They just can't be trusted not to shoot Black people for no good reason, or abuse the law and take advantage of it to harm Black people.

And they certainly shouldn't be allowed to be cops. I mean, we hold cops to a much higher standard than gangs, but lately it seems like every week some white racist is shooting a black teenager just because the kid is acting like a teenager.

Maybe its the Scottish heritage. I'm part Scots myself and proud of it. But those people are pretty intolerant. Its a shame they can't be trusted, but they certainly don't seem to be able to treat Black people fairly.

No Country For Old Men

I was struck this morning by the image of the putative leader of the Old White Guy faction in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, telling his followers that it was time to turn this country around.

He promises a 180 degree shift: that's what his campaign was about; that's what his party's message was; that's what his comrade's messages were; that's what's wanted by the evil billionaires who poured money into their coffers and their supporters.

And so I'm reminded of the comic's routine, popular during the 80s among comedians who'd grown up on Bill Cosby and then pushed away from him - people like Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor - of the dad who threatens to turn the car around and go home because the kids are misbehaving.  And then antics ensue, because the punchline was some variation of "dad just wanted to go home and drink beer on the couch in front of the football game and only took us out because we pestered him."  Now, its funny because its true.  At least it was funny the first dozen or so times I heard it.