For those who aren’t regular readers of this blog, it’s worth restating a couple things. 1.) There is principled opposition to health care reform, that has nothing to do with race. 2.) It’s not clear to me to what extent race motivates Tea Party leaders. I believe it to certainly be a factor, but I don’t have a grievance-meter to tell you precisely how much or how little. 3.) African-Americans, whom I obviously care a great deal about, would benefit more from health care reform, than any sort of game which seeks to divine the precise calibrations of Joe Wilson heart.
RELATED: UPDATE: White House Disputes Carter’s Racism Remarks
Having said all of that, I think Adam makes an important observation here. Media is very interested in Jimmy Carter’s assertion that racism is at play in the town hall meetings. It isn’t very interested in Glenn Beck calling health reform “reparations” and claiming “medical schools will get more medical dollars if they’ve proven they’ve put minorities ahead.” He did this back in July. It isn’t very interested in Senate leader Jon Cornyn insinuating that health care reform will create a “quota system which will determine who would get treated on the basis of age and race.”
RELATED: Bill Clinton Says Carter Was Wrong For Racism Comment
There’s a lot at work here: 1.) Race-baiters have, for the past few decades, repeatedly outfoxed anti-racists. Beck and Cornyn know how to walk up to the line. Carter is from a generation of liberals who never understood why people didn’t agree them about Willie Horton. Thus Carter doesn’t insinuate, he doesn’t calibrate, he just speaks, political effects be damned. 2.) The dominant school of journalism holds that it’s safer to talk about the effect of talking about race on Obama, rather than actually talking about its effects, period. That’s true for most things though–reporters are generally more interested in gamesmanship, than issues. 3.) A lot of reporters take Beck and Cornyn’s race-baiting is taken as a given. I’ll be shocked if anyone asks Cornyn about this. I don’t think they much care.
[Source: The Atlantic]
