Monday, August 10, 2009

Of course birtherism is connected to racism

Dave Weigel accumulates more proof that birtherism isn't a Republican thing, so much as a Southern Republican thing: only 9% of Utah residents doubt Obama's citizenship. Daniel Larison's theory that birtherism's Southern preeminence is merely the function of increased GOP partisanship in the region continues to sound shaky to me. I tend more often than not to roll my eyes when liberal bloggers try to reduce conservatism's appeal to a purely revanchist take on race (smarter lefties realize that it wasn't just race), but in this case, it's a theory which fits all the facts in a way that more charitable theories don't.

At this point, though, I think it's too late for Republicans to unpop this particular Jack-in-the-box.

The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.