Saturday, September 01, 2007

The Racist Heart of Conservatism

I’ve tried to keep polemic out of this blog. I always admired McLuhan’s ability to spew psychosociological aphorisms inflected politically but without ever being overtly political. It’s largely because you can’t pin him to any position on a left-right spectrum that McLuhan floats without a natural home in the academy. But I must lack McLuhan’s savoir faire, because I can’t find an indirect way to put it:
THE HEART OF CONSERVATIVE POLITICS IS RACIST.
Why do they want to live in gated suburbs? To be far from dark skin. Why do they commute to work in quasi-military vehicles? To protect themselves from dark skin. Why are they fanatical about owning guns? To make sure dark skin keeps its distance.

They love free markets and consumer choice and despise the “nanny state.” But they love to regulate markets in the most severe way and deny consumers choice and arm a supernanny state in the name of the drug war. They love “federalism” and “states’ rights” and celebrate the autonomy of the states to function as “laboratories of democracy.” But when the citizens of a few states voted to make marijuana available to medical patients, the federal government flexed its muscle and threatened doctors with de-licensure. No one on the conservative side complained about this federal interventionism. Why when it comes to drug policy do conservatives run from their principles? Because the primary effect of drug policy is to lock hundreds of thousands of dark-skinned people in cages.

They despise the “death tax” but love the death penalty. Why? Because it disproportionately kills dark-skinned people. Why did New Orleans suffer such a horrible neglect from the Bush administration after hurricane Katrina? Because the skin of New Orleans was too dark. Why do they hate mass transit? Because it might deliver dark skin to their gated suburbs.

And so on.
The blood that runs through the veins of conservatism is racist.


Eugenic Dreams of the Power Elite: Part 1

Eugenic Dreams of the Power Elite: Part 2

Eugenic Dreams of the Power Elite: Part 3

Eugenic Dreams of the Power Elite: Part 4

2 comments:

  1. Baloney.

    The heart of liberalism is discrimination, as your post proves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. To discriminate is just to distinguish one thing from another.

    The Left-Right distinction is a puppet-show prop that serves the ruling class. I try not to get hung up on the staged Left-Right squabbling that occupies political theater.

    If you think I discriminate against the Right, keep reading, and you'll see that I'm no fan of the Left's sacred cow, the prevailing, Darwinian, model of evolution.

    ReplyDelete