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I used to be with it, then they changed what it was

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Here is the now completely inexplicable Richard Cohen, “liberal” columnist for the Washington Post, on non racism:

Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.

I don’t get it.  Cohen maintains that Republicans are not racist, they merely have to suppress the urge to vomit at the prospect of miscegenation, because, er that’s not what “their country looks like.”

2 thoughts on “I used to be with it, then they changed what it was”

  1. Richard Cohen probably formed his opinion of what a “cultural conservative” looks like in the 1960s. He believes interracial marriage is controversial, when in reality ~85% of the population supports it.

    I don’t know if this is a fallacy as much as an example of a false belief (on Richard Cohen’s part).

  2. Gee Ben: “They’re not racist, they just want to vomit at the prospect of interracial marriage (and mixed-race children).” Er, that makes them racist. However, you’re right about the factual question here–Cohen hasn’t done anything to establish that this general claim is true.

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