BLACK, WHITE, & GRAY (LADY):

Up From the Southern Strategy (NY Times, December 29, 2002)

President Bush must waste no time in moving beyond rhetoric to deeds if he means to convince the nation that the Republican Party, after decades of cynical voter exploitation, no longer has room for a "Southern strategy" steeped in appeals to disgruntled whites. Mr. Bush promised as much in quickly signaling the purge of the Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, for his tribute to the old Dixiecrat politics of racist oppression. Mr. Lott's outrageous gaffe laid bare the antebellum underbelly of much of the G.O.P.'s modern campaigning in the South.

Beyond strong words, Mr. Bush should seize his newly won electoral advantage on Capitol Hill to spur his party's House and Senate majorities toward credible legislative progress on an agenda rooted in his oft-promised compassion. That need goes beyond obvious hot-button issues like the pending court challenge to affirmative action at the University of Michigan and the controversial nomination of Charles Pickering Sr. to a federal appeals court.

The Times long ago moved beyong the point where it's possible to caricature their views, but this is pretty rich. To demonstrate that racism is unacceptable, the GOP has to approve of an explicitly racist admissions system for colleges and ditch an ofay jurist. Is racism itself wrong or is it okay to be racist if the victims are white? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 30, 2002 8:45 PM