Rebound

Racism.  Racist rhetoric.  Race resentment.  Affirmative Action Backlash.  Southern Strategy (Repubs).  Modified Southern Strategy (Dems).

Wishful thinkers have pushed the concept of a Post-Racial America since about 2006, when Obama really started to get up some speed.  Maybe 'wishful thinking' is the wrong description for it, because I see a pretty strong tendency in my own kids to categorize people in ways that seem to have a lot more to do with behavior than with race.  One thing that's been kinda jarring for me is that when I've talked with them about their attitudes toward "different kinds of people", they've all but told me I'm a racist my own self.  So maybe the social evolution thing is working the way it should, in that I can claim to be somewhat less racist than my dad was, and that I think I can say with some certainty that I'm  a lot less racist than his dad was.  It doesn't mean the racism problem is fixed, but things are better than they were when I was a kid.

Anyway, we have a system of electoral politics that looks and feels exactly like The Cola Wars, or McDonald's vs Burger King, or Ford against Chevy; or whatever, but it's no longer about finding ways to connect people thru their shared experience and aspirations; it's about getting a mob together based on who and/or what they despise and/or fear.

Crooks and Liars

Oh, and BTW -  it's all Obama's fault.