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Party Privileges

The basic point here, I think, is that racism allows white people to be mediocre. ~Ta-Nehisi Coates Coates is referring to this article, which makes the case that white privilege explains why the records and qualifications of Palin and Obama are treated differently.  This strikes me as quite exaggerated, since by and large it is not […]

The basic point here, I think, is that racism allows white people to be mediocre. ~Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates is referring to this article, which makes the case that white privilege explains why the records and qualifications of Palin and Obama are treated differently.  This strikes me as quite exaggerated, since by and large it is not white people as such who are flacking for Palin as a qualified candidate, nor is it even all conservatives who are doing this, but it is principally partisan hacks who are deeply invested in making a bad VP selection look better than it is.  This may be entirely obvious, but the difference in treatment comes mainly from Republicans who are intent on Obama’s defeat and McCain and Palin’s victory, which makes this a more straightforward case of absurd partisan opportunism.  

Were Palin still white but a Democrat, well, look at how Palin supporters view Hillary Clinton and you can just imagine the response.  Were Palin not white but a still a Republican, the mainstream conservative praise for her limited record would be, I submit, even more over-the-top as a result of combining the Republican tendency probably to overpraise prominent minorities and women who agree with them and a willingness to cut these allies more slack.  Taking nothing away from him, the boosting of Bobby Jindal for VP by a number of prominent Republicans was a good example of what I mean.  Jindal’s resume is not that different from Palin’s, though he has more experience in the federal government, and while you could argue that Jindal has a better grasp on policy he would still not be qualified to take over as President.   If McCain had chosen Jindal instead we would be seeing pretty much the same strained rationalizations and excuse-making that we are seeing now, because the main issue is not whether Palin or Obama is really qualified, but it is instead simply the party affiliation of each that governs how they are treated.

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