I haven't actually seen many, if any, liberals saying that the bulk of opposition to Obama's policies is driven by racism. That's sort of a straw man the right created and attributed to liberals. What we've been saying, and what I absolutely still believe to be true, is that a portion of the folks opposing Obama, especially amongst the most foaming at the mouth opposition, are motivated by racism. A Republican on another board estimated that it is "no more than 10% of Republicans" who are racist. I think that's probably about right, and I think most folks in both parties would probably put out a number somewhere in that ballpark.
Where I think the parties differ is around how big of a deal 10% is and what should be done about it. From where I'm sitting, 10% is a huge number. That means almost half of the juries have a racist sitting on them. Think what that means for equality before the law. When somebody gets a job usually there are somewhere around 5 people involved in the decision of who to hire. If 10% of one of the major party are racist, that means 1/4 of the times a black guy applies for a job, he's getting denied because of his race. That goes a long ways towards explaining why
a white applicant is 2 and a half times as likely to get called in for an interview with the same resume as a black candidate. That's a huge problem.
What's more alarming is that it wasn't 10% a year ago. The number is growing. Membership in militant white supremacist groups has reportedly trippled since Obama won the election. That's a serious problem.
In 2007 3,500 black people were the victims of hate crimes. I'm not looking forward to seeing how many there are in 2008 or 2009, but it's a safe bet that as membership in white supremacist organizations rises, so will those numbers. The FBI has foiled a shocking
75 domestic terrorist plots by white supremacist organizations since the Oklaholma City bombing. These groups are no joke. They're violent, they're active, they're dangerous, and they're growing.
At the same time, racism is appearing more and more often in relatively mainstream media pundits. The racism is being legitimized by it's association with the Republican party. A kid that goes to a teabagging event with his republican parents is being exposed to the full fledged white supremacists and is learning that it is ok to march with folks like that- that they're on the same side. To go from there to becoming a white supremacist himself is not a huge leap.
What really has me puzzled is that the solution is simple and pain free. All we need is for a number of very high profile white Republicans to speak out against white supremacy. The ideals of white supremacy and the ideals of conservatism are completely opposed. So why aren't we hearing that message being shouted from the top of the party? Why aren't any of the speakers at teabagging events expressing their disagreement with the folks in the crowd with racist signs? Sure, they'd risk losing some of the votes from white supremacists, but they'd gain at least that many moderate and minority votes wouldn't they? I don't think most Republicans are racists. Not at all. But I do see an alarming tendency emerging for Republicans tolerating racism, denying that it exists, even defending it. Doing that creates a safe haven for white supremacy to grow under the protection of a major political party. We Democrats made that mistake once and millions of lives were ruined for generations. Republicans, we need you to show us up and cast out the white supremacists in months instead of the decades it took us to denounce the dixiecrats.