Thursday, July 26, 2012

Carter Eskew wrote this morning about a Romney adviser who told an English audience:
"We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he [meaning Romney] feels the special relationship (with Britain) is special," the adviser said. "The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have." My oh my. Like a photograph in developing solution, Romney is slowly revealing himself. He is white bread made with bleached flour. Once again — this time through his adviser's statement — he has shown himself ignorant of the changed ethnicity and politics of America. I don't have the census figures handy, but millions and millions of Americans ain't Anglo or Saxon.

Personally, much of my heritage is Anglo-Saxon, and I understand the primitive tribal impulses that drive this sort of thing. Every group has its element of tribalism that includes an in-group protecting itself from an out-group. But the America I love is about overcoming such tribal impulses, and uniting one people in a mutual cause. It's not clear that this is a view the Romney campaign shares. This is the same candidate that just marched into the NAACP and told his listeners that if they wanted more free stuff, they'd better vote for the other guy. Has the Romney campaign chosen to explicitly pit "white" America against the feared "other?" If so, it's a sad and misguided strategy.

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