"What is interesting and important is the Republicans' long battle to use racism to stop class politics."

We are going to have to deal with lying apologists for Republican racism for the rest of this election cycle, at least.

Eric Rauchway gives a definitive response. It's not simply an aside to say that I think his essay demonstrates academic training at its very best: it combines a mastery of facts and depth of knowledge with a sense of moral purpose and controlled civility to make years of study and accumulated knowledge available, "simple," as Eric puts it, to others.


Here's a more casual example of much the same thing. The money quote is this:

The New York Times would have us believe, however, that Senator Obama should have fixed this by now. “Obama isn’t closing the divide on race”, reads the accusing headline.

Right after turning water into wine at the next reception he attends, Senator Obama will get right on eliminating 250 years or more of racial disparities. It is absurd for these Times reporters to subtly imply that somehow the Obama candidacy should have eliminated differing opinions on race by now.

Make sure you read Eric's piece, though, to really see *why* Thistlethwait is right here. And also because it's a beautiful essay.